This Day in History: April 12, 1861
One hundred and sixty years ago today, the first battle of the American Civil War began.
One hundred and sixty years ago today, members of the South Carolina militia attacked Fort Sumter, a sea fort situated in Charleston harbor. In December of the previous year, South Carolina had become the first state to secede from the United States. After six more states followed suit, the nascent Confederacy began seizing federal property in its respective states. The militia, which served in lieu of the not-yet-comprised Confederate army, attacked the fort after the commander of Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, refused to evacuate his troops from the harbor.
The bombardment began at 4:30 am on April 12. By two-thirty pm the next day, the first battle of the American Civil War ended with the exhausted Union soldiers surrendering to the Confederates.
The newly sworn President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, immediately called for seventy-five thousand volunteers to help squash the rebellion. Shortly thereafter, four more Southern states seceded from the Union. The Civil War began in earnest. By the time General Robert E. Lee officially surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House four years later, approximately 620,000 soldiers lay dead. The South lay in ruins.
