$Unique_ID{USH00321} $Pretitle{34} $Title{Fort Sumter Chapter 1 The Fort on the Shoal} $Subtitle{} $Author{US Department of the Interior} $Affiliation{National Park Service} $Subject{fort sumter harbor charleston } $Volume{Handbook 127} $Date{1984} $Log{Gun Casements*0032101.scf } Book: Fort Sumter Author: US Department of the Interior Affiliation: National Park Service Volume: Handbook 127 Date: 1984 Overview of Fort Sumter Located at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, the Union forces in Fort Sumter were fired upon at the beginning of the Civil War. Two years later, Fort Sumter was the site of another historic battle between Union and Confederate forces. Chapter 1 The Fort on the Shoal ". . . the character of the times particularly inculcates the lesson that, whether to prevent or repel danger, we ought not to be unprepared for it. This consideration will sufficiently recommend to Congress a liberal provision for the immediate extension and gradual completion of the works of defense, both fixed and floating, on our maritime frontier . . . ." - President James Madison to Congress, December 15, 1815. Anyone visiting Fort Sumter today will find it difficult to believe that it could ever have ranked among the "most spectacular harbor defense structures to come out of any era of military architecture." Wrecked by the Civil War, its walls reduced to half their original height, the present fort only slightly resembles the huge fortification that dominated the entrance to Charleston Harbor in the middle years of the 19th century. Fort Sumter was one of a series of coastal fortifications built by the United States after the War of 1812 - a war that had shown the gross inadequacy of American coastal defenses. The fort belonged to what has come to be known as the Third American System of coastal defense, embodying "structural durability, a high concentration of armament, and enormous overall firepower." This system emerged after Congress set up a military Board of Engineers for Seacoast Fortifications in answer to President Madison's plea. [See Gun Casements: Fort Sumter gun casements (FRONT COVER)] Under the unofficial direction of Brig. Gen. Simon Bernard, onetime military engineer to the emperor Napoleon I, the Board began surveying the entire coastline of the United States in 1817. The South Atlantic coast, "especially regarded as less important," was not surveyed until 1821. One fortification report, covering the Gulf coast and the Atlantic coast between Cape Hatteras and the St. Croix River, had been submitted to Congress earlier that year, but it was not until the revised form of the report appeared in 1826 that much thought was given to permanently occupying the shoal in Charleston Harbor opposite Fort Moultrie. If the location were feasible, the Board reported, "the fortification of the harbor may be considered as an easy and simple problem." With the guns of the projected fort crossing fire with those of Fort Moultrie, the city of Charleston would be most effectively protected against attack. Plans for Fort Sumter were drawn up in 1827 and adopted on December 5, 1828. In the course of that winter Lt. Henry Brewerton, Corps of Engineers, assumed charge of the project and commenced active operations. But progress was slow, and as late as 1834 the new fort was no more than a hollow pentagonal rock mole two feet above low water and open at one side to permit supply ships to pass to the interior. Meanwhile, the fort had been named Sumter in honor of Thomas Sumter, brigadier general commanding South Carolina militia during the Revolution. Operations were suspended late in the autumn of 1834 when ownership of the site came into question. The previous May, one William Laval, a resident of Charleston, had secured from the State a rather vague grant to 870 acres of "land" in Charleston Harbor. In November, acting under this grant, Laval notified the representative of the U.S. Engineers at Fort Johnson of his claim to the site of Fort Sumter. In the meantime, the South Carolina Legislature had become curious about the operations in Charleston Harbor and began to question "whether the creation of an Island on a shoal in the Channel, may not injuriously affect the navigation and commerce of the Harbor." The following month, the Committee on Federal Relations reported that it could not ascertain by what authority the Government had assumed to erect the works alluded to." Acting apparently under the impression that a formal deed of cession to "land" ordinarily covered with water had not been necessary, the Federal Government had commenced operations at the mouth of Charleston Harbor without seeking or receiving State approval to do so. Laval's claim was invalidated by the State's attorney general in 1837, but the harbor issue remained unresolved. It was November 1841 before the Federal Government received clear title to the 125 acres of harbor "land," although construction of Fort Sumter had resumed the previous January under the skillful guidance of Capt. A. H. Bowman, who pushed the work forward. Bowman changed the original plans in several respects, the most important involving the composition of the foundation. Instead of a "grillage of continuous square timbers" upon the rock mass, he proposed laying several courses of granite blocks because he feared worms would completely destroy the wood; and palmetto, which might have resisted such attacks, did not have the compactness of fiber or the necessary strength to support the weight of the superstructure. Work was difficult. The granite foundation had to be laid between periods of high and low tide, and there were times when the water level permitted no work to be done at all. The excessive heat of the Charleston summers was a recurrent problem; so was yellow fever. Much of the building material had to be brought in from the North. The magnitude of the task is indicated by the quantities involved: about 10,000 tons of granite (some of it from as far away as the Penobscot River region of Maine) and well over 60,000 tons of other rock. Bricks, shells, and sand could be obtained locally, but even here there were problems. Local brickyard capacities were small and millions of bricks were required. Similarly, hundreds of thousands of bushels of shells were needed - for concrete, for the foundation of the first-tier casemate floors, and for use in the parade fill next to the enrockment. Even the actual delivery of supplies, however local in origin, was a problem, for then, as now, the fort was a difficult spot at which to land. By 1860 Fort Sumter outwardly possessed a commanding and formidable appearance. Its five-foot-thick pentagonal-shaped brick masonry walls towered nearly 50 feet above low water and enclosed a parade ground of roughly one acre. Along four of the walls extended two hers of arched gunrooms. Officers' quarters lined the fifth side - the 316.7-foot gorge. (This wall was to be armed only along the parapet.) Three-story brick barracks for the enlisted garrison paralleled the gunrooms on each flank. The sally port at the center of the gorge opened on a 171-foot wharf and a 25 1/2-foot-wide stone esplanade that extended the length of that wall. Outward appearances, however, were deceiving. Unruffled decades of peace had induced glacial slowness and indifference in Washington. The fort was far from completed and, according to U.S. Army Surgeon Samuel W. Crawford who came to know the place well, "in no condition for defense." Eight-foot-square openings yawned in place of gun embrasures on the second tier. Of the 135 guns planned for the gunrooms and the open terreplein above, only 15 had been mounted. Most of these were 32 pounders; none was heavier. The barracks were unfinished and, where tenable, occupied by workmen. The officers' quarters were also unfinished, and a large number of wooden structures "of the most temporary character" occupied the parade. These "served as storehouses for the tools and material of the workmen, while all over the parade lay sand and rough masonry, and sixty-six guns with their carriages and 5,600 shot and shell." By December 1860 time as well as money had run out, and the fort was about to take on a political significance far beyond the military function it was originally intended to serve. The long smoldering sectional dispute between North and South had become like a powder keg. And Fort Sumter was the fuse that would ignite it.