Chapter 3: The War Begins

But instead of immediately attacking Sumter, the Confederates pause to organize their resources in anticipation of a full-scale war. This delay lasts until April 9, when President Jefferson Davis gives the order to bombard the fort.

Execution belongs with the commander of all troops in Charleston, Brigadier General PGT Beauregard, a West Point graduate whose artillery instructor there in 1838 was none other than Robert Anderson. The “Little Creole” proceeds to win fame in the Mexican War and is ranked 5^th in the entire Confederate Army in 1861.

At 4:30am on April 12, South Carolina fire-eater secessionist Edmund Ruffin is given the honor of firing the first shell, a 64 pounder which bounces off the fort’s 5 foot thick brick exterior. Anderson responds at 7:00AM with a scarce round launched by Captain Abner Doubleday. But the Confederates unleash some 3,000 missiles over the next 33 hours and Anderson is forced to surrender at 2:00pm on April 13.

On April 14, the U.S. colors are hauled down and the Union troops board a ship headed to New York. Anderson carries the flag with him and is greeted as a national hero. Four years later, on April 14, 1865, he will raise that same flag at Sumter to celebrate the Union victory in the war.