1. Secession
Begins
United States
of
America
The Attack on Fort Sumter

2. Main idea: Eleven southern states left
the Union and formed their own
government.
 “We are not enemies, but friends….We must
not be enemies.”
President Abraham Lincoln

3. Delegates from 7 southern states meet
in Montgomery, Alabama
 February 4, 1861- the 7 states vote to form their
own confederation.
 A confederacy is a political union of people.
 They believed that states should be allowed to
decide their own laws:
 Ex. Decide if slavery was legal
 President Lincoln disagreed

4. South Carolina withdraws first
 People voted to break away or secede from the Union
on December 20, 1860
 Over the next 6 weeks, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas soon followed

5. Terms of the Confederacy
 The delegates decided that the confederation
should have more power than the central
government
 They called themselves the Confederate States
of America
 They elected Jefferson Davis as their President

6. Let’s take a trip to Charleston, SC
Why would the southern states want
to keep control of this fort?

7. Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor
 The Union had control of this key southern fort
 The Confederates knew controlling the fort meant controlling
the ships and the harbor

8.  President Lincoln was determined to find a way to
hold the country together without giving in to
Confederate demands
 He wanted:
To avoid a war with the southerners
The southern states to return to the Union…peacefully
 It was too late…
Attack on Fort Sumter

9.  The first shot of the American Civil War
didn't hit anything. It was a 10-inch mortar
shell that exploded above Fort Sumter as
a signal for Confederate artillery to open
fire on the Union-held fort.

11. View of Fort Sumter from Charleston

14. Fort during the battle

15. Our voyage begins here
Liberty Square is the present day
gateway to the fort. As you walk
through the courtyard you are able to
read messages from the past. Then
you board a ferry for the hour ride to
the site of the first shots that were
fired.

16. Present day entrance to Fort Sumter

17. Five replicas of historic flags regularly fly over
Fort Sumter. These represent a timeline of
Civil War flags at the fort from 1861-1865.

18. The Battery
 This concrete structure occupies the middle of
Fort Sumter.

19. A 42 pounder smoothbore cannon at
Fort Sumter.

20. 100 pounder Parrott rifles still on their
original carriages at Fort Sumter.

22. Ruins of Fort Sumter's Officer's Quarters
and powder magazine

23. The Flag flies over Fort Sumter
 On April 14, 1865, Union Maj. Gen. Robert
Anderson came out of retirement
 He re-raised the same U.S. flag over Fort Sumter that
he had lowered in surrender four years earlier.
 This flag is now on exhibit at the Fort Sumter Visitor
Education Center.

24. Aerial view of Fort Sumter National
Monument.