Fort Sumter Starts Civil War

Posted by Mary Trotter Kion Apr 6, 2007

In 1861, President Lincoln made it clear that the Union would hold Fort Sumter, situated in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina, as well as all other Federal installation situated in the South. South Carolina leaves the Union and attacks Federal troops at Fort Sumter in a bombardment that lasted 34-hour until the Northern troops surrendered, returning the fort to the Confederacy. The American Civil War had begun.