(female narrator) "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.

In 1846, Congressman Jefferson Davis of Mississippi brought forward to the House of Representatives a resolution calling for the replacement of federal troops in all coastal forts by state militia.

The proposal failed.

"Hold, occupy, and possess."

President Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.

"Reduce the fort."

Confederate Government, April 1861.

[♪ hammer dulcimer music ♪] ♪ (narrator) Following the War of 1812, the United States recognized the country's coastline was vulnerable to attack.

During the War for 1812, the British had free rein to land anywhere on the coast of the United States and do damage to civilian population centers as well as to military installations.

Of course, the fact that they had sacked and burned our nation's capital had a tremendous impact on governmental policy after the War for 1812.

The United States Congress decided that a series of coastal defenses was necessary.

This resulted in the construction of a series of forts up and down the coast.

Fort Sumter was built mainly as a harbor defense for the city of Charleston.

Natural terrain dictated that it be built on the site it was.

As in the case of most harbor defenses, most of its guns were facing seaward.

It was also built with a few guns facing the city of Charleston for its own defense.

(narrator) Starting in 1817 and ending in the early 1820s, the entire United States coastline was surveyed.

The Military Board of Engineers reported in 1826 that a fort on a shoal in Charleston Harbor would effectively protect the city.

Right after the War of 1812, Charleston's harbor's defenses were rudimentary at best.

Fort Johnson was a pre-Revolutionary War fort that had little value and had not been properly maintained.

Fort Moultrie, which had been, prior to Colonel Moultrie's defense, known as Fort Sullivan, on Sullivan's Island was another of Charleston's defenses.

But due to the range of the guns at the time, proper control and overlapping fields of fire in the entrance to Charleston Harbor did not exist, and there was a need to augment that.

The Corps of Engineers knew there was a shoal that ran out from Fort Johnson and ended at the mouth of the harbor and across from Fort Moultrie.

The main ship channel passed between this shoal and Fort Moultrie.

The army realized that a fort on the tip of this shoal would create effective crossfire at the mouth of the harbor between Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter that could deny an enemy vessel entrance to the harbor.

(narrator) Plans were made in 1827.

Two years later, construction began.

Working in rough conditions, it took five years to get the foundation laid.

In the interim, it had been decided to name the structure Fort Sumter after South Carolina Revolutionary War hero Thomas Sumter.

There were criticisms about the design of not only Fort Sumter but the other coastal defenses the government was building from Maine to Louisiana.

There was criticism that the War Department was building 18th-century fortifications for the 19th century.

Events of the Civil War would prove that criticism correct because these brick fortifications, many of them designed after the great French fortification master Vauban, the hard, brick walls simply could not withstand the shot and shell of the mid-19th century.

Many of them were five-sided designs, pentagons, such as Fort Sumter in Charleston.

Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines in Mobile, protecting that harbor, were also five-sided or star-design forts.

All of them were brick, many of them, exterior walls 8 to 12 feet thick.

(narrator) In 1834, two events stopped construction of Fort Sumter.

A Charleston native claimed he had a grant from the state of 800 acres in the harbor, including the Fort Sumter site.

Also, the state government had inquired whether construction would affect the harbor in a negative way.

It was discovered the federal government had not received approval from the state to construct a fort in the harbor.

In 1837, the state struck aside the Charlestonian's claim and, four years later, granted the federal government title to the construction site.

It was not until 1841 that work resumed on the fort.

It was an amazing engineering feat that they were gonna place 60,000 tons of granite on the tip of a shoal.

It was 8 or 9 feet down to the shoal and 8 or 9 feet of water till you reached the surface.

That's an amazing feat.

To build a fort on top of that comprised of about 7 million bricks would be a huge undertaking.

It took a long time, especially with funding running out on occasion and other delays.

And even by 1860, when we were on the eve of war, the fort was only 90% complete.

(narrator) The fort in 1860 did look finished, but the interior was far from complete.

A lack of funding had slowed building.

Fort Sumter was not the only harbor defense suffering from a lack of money.

Fort Moultrie, across the water on Sullivan's Island, was used in the Revolutionary War.

In 1780, Major Richard Anderson had served at this site.

Now, 80 years later, in 1860, his son, Major Robert Anderson, took control of the fort and the surrounding harbor batteries.

That the major was a Southerner and his wife came from Georgia would normally not be of concern.

But because of Abraham Lincoln's election as President earlier in the month, times were not normal in Charleston nor the country.

Southerners thought Lincoln would seek to end slavery, vital to the South's economy.

Secession fever ran rampant in South Carolina, and on December 20, 1860, a state convention gathered in Charleston at the Hall of the St. Andrew's Society.

The convention participants voted the Ordinance of Secession, making, in their eyes, South Carolina a separate country.

Though Lincoln had been elected, he would not take office until March.

President James Buchanan still held office and was facing a growing problem in Charleston.

Since the secession vote, South Carolina governor Francis Pickens had demanded the evacuation of federal troops from Charleston Harbor forts.

At Fort Moultrie, Anderson was in a precarious position.

He was in a fort that had practically no land defenses.

A South Carolina takeover seemed likely.

Due to lack of funding, Fort Moultrie was not in the best of condition, plus, he did not have an adequate garrison to properly defend Fort Moultrie.

Adding to that that Charlestonians had built summer residences out on Sullivan's Island, and the second, third stories or the rooftops of these residences dominated the area around Fort Moultrie, if Anderson was under any type of attack, South Carolina forces could simply man the second, third stories and rooftops and, with sharpshooters, pick off Union soldiers manning the cannon on the parapet of the fort.

So Anderson realized that his situation at Fort Moultrie was completely indefensible, and the only way he could defend his garrison and continue his mission was to go to Fort Sumter, since it was on an island, surrounded by water.

Fort Moultrie was designed mainly as a harbor defense for Charleston.

All of its guns and its fortifications were facing seaward, which made it a poor fort for Major Anderson to have to defend against the citizens of Charleston.

He felt that the situation there was indefensible.

(narrator) An example of the dangerous conditions at Fort Moultrie were piles of sand against the walls.

Cows were able to walk to the parapet.

Anderson knew a charging militia could do the same.

Major Anderson had asked for permission from the War Department to remove the sand from the face of the walls in order to make the parapets defensible and improve the military position of Fort Sumter.

He was instructed not to do so, as such a course would be viewed by South Carolina forces as an aggressive, warlike move.

It would be viewed by them as preparing for war, preparing for conflict.

(narrator) Anderson had received conflicting instructions about his presence at Fort Moultrie.

The government told the major to avoid every act which could needlessly provoke the local population, but authorized Anderson to move to another fort, should the major have evidence of a planned attack against Moultrie.

To add to Anderson's dilemma was Buchanan's informal promise to South Carolina on December 10th that Anderson would not switch harbor forts.

Six days after the vote for secession, Anderson felt there was going to be an attack.

On the night of December 26, 1860, he sailed to the uncompleted Fort Sumter.

He thought his forces would be safer in Fort Sumter away from the militia and the citizenry of South Carolina who were really feeling their independence.

Remember, secession, December 20, 1860.

South Carolina had already taken over Castle Pinckney.

They were taking over Fort Johnson, the Customs House, the federal arsenal in Charleston.

Fort Sumter was the only federal installation that had not yet come into South Carolina hands-- not Confederate hands, now, but South Carolina hands.

(narrator) Anderson entered Fort Sumter.

(Hatcher) The fort looks good outside.

It's different on the inside.

The enlisted men's barracks are not completed, the second-tier casemates are incomplete, and only 15 cannon had been mounted in the fort all told.

So he did not have the best situation due to supplies like food and also a staff or garrison to properly man the fort.

(narrator) Governor Pickens felt betrayed by Anderson's move.

All there was was a war of words at this point.

The bottom line is, Anderson and his 83 troops were in Fort Sumter, and because it was reachable only by boat, then taking Fort Sumter would have been difficult for South Carolina forces at that time.

(narrator) South Carolina again demanded Buchanan remove all federal troops from Charleston Harbor.

Governor Pickens ordered the state's militia to seize Fort Moultrie.

When South Carolina officials arrived, they discovered the cannons spiked and the carriages burned.

To prevent federal troops from damaging other installations, Governor Pickens ordered the seizure of Castle Pinckney off the shore from Charleston.

In late 1860, with tensions high, the federal government was strengthening the structure when South Carolina troops arrived to take the fort.

Little fighting occurred as South Carolina soldiers expelled the federal troops from Castle Pinckney.

Some consider this the first act of the Civil War.

Throughout the war, the site was a prison, housing many Union soldiers captured in the First Battle of Bull Run.

It was also a storage facility.

President Buchanan's response to the seizing of the forts was a plan to resupply and rearm Fort Sumter.

There would be no evacuating the fort.

Both sides were now preparing for conflict.

Anderson's men mounted cannon.

South Carolinians built several batteries around the harbor.

Early January 1861 saw a federal relief ship, the "Star of the West," heading for Fort Sumter.

Inside the paddle wheeler were supplies and 200 troops.

Buchanan had sent Anderson a letter informing him to aid the ship if it were attacked, but Anderson did not receive the message in time.

On January 9, 1861, the "Star of the West" entered Charleston Harbor.

Citadel cadets on Morris Island fired on the ship, and Fort Moultrie opened up her guns on the "Star of the West."

Anderson, not knowing of Buchanan's letter, did not return fire.

Had Anderson returned fire, that would have been the beginning of the war.

That's one of those ifs we'll never know.

But there was no return fire from Fort Sumter.

The "Star of the West" was an unarmed merchantman, so there was no return fire from the federal ship.

It was very close.

Anderson and his garrison contemplated putting in some supporting fire to the "Star of the West," but withheld their fire.

If Anderson had opened fire on the "Star of the West" battery or the Citadel battery, war could have erupted then and there.

(narrator) Under heavy fire, the "Star of the West" headed out to sea.

Anderson never fired his guns.

Civil war had been avoided... briefly.

Major Anderson, in order to make a show of force, opened the casemates and ran the guns forward so that they could be viewed.

And this was viewed with great apprehension by the South Carolina forces in the harbor.

But in order to avoid the outbreak of a general engagement, he did not allow the firing of his guns.

In fact, one of the enlisted men's wives had to be forcibly restrained.

It caused great upset that return fire to protect the "Star of the West" could not be... returned from Fort Sumter.

One of the enlisted men's wives had to be forcibly restrained.

She got so far as having a cannon's lanyard in her hand and was ready to pull the priming charge, and she was restrained.

A lady could actually have started the Civil War at the "Star of the West" incident in January 1861.

But the "Star of the West" should have been the origins of the war.

In early effort by Buchanan to reinforce and resupply Fort Sumter, he chose not to send a naval vessel and rented, for $1250 a day, an enormous amount of money, the commercial vessel the "Star of the West," which was, on the surface, sent to bring supplies to Fort Sumter, although below the decks, it commanded troops as well.

(narrator) Fort Sumter was not the only Southern federal installation still in federal hands.

There was a similar situation in Florida with Fort Pickens.

In fact, on February 15, 1861, the provisional Confederate congress held a secret session in which is resolved that immediate steps should be taken to take possession of those forts, Sumter and Pickens, and I quote, "...either by negotiation or by force."

So already, in February 1861, the Confederate government is realizing they've got to resolve this situation one way or the other.

(narrator) One way or the other meant negotiations, while continuing to build and reinforce the fort and batteries around Charleston Harbor.

By now, the Confederate government was taking over operations of Charleston's defenses.

In February, Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederate States of America.

(Culberson) Things were, from a tactical standpoint, a mess in the layout of the forts and batteries in Charleston Harbor.

This report resulted in Jefferson Davis delegating the task of reorganizing the fortifications of Charleston Harbor to Pierre G.T.

Beauregard.

General Beauregard came to Charleston in March of 1861 and revised significantly the layout of forts.

He rearranged the gun emplacements and the structure of the fortification of Charleston Harbor.

(narrator) Beauregard and Anderson knew each other from years past.

P.G.T.

Beauregard and Robert Anderson were close friends.

They had maintained professional contact since their tenure at West Point.

They had a lot of respect for each other.

And the letters that you'll read from Beauregard to Anderson during the period of time from March until the opening of the firing on Fort Sumter in April of 1861 are couched less in terms of military adversaries rather than old friends with the deepest respect for each other.

(narrator) March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln takes office.

In his inaugural address, he said the government would hold, occupy, and possess forts in the South still under federal control.

After his address, Lincoln was informed that Anderson was in danger of running out of supplies.

Either a relief expedition or an order to evacuate would be needed.

When they evacuated in a hurry, there was a problem in that space and time only allowed so much preparation.

As a result, supplies toward the middle of March began to run critically low.

At the beginning of April, they were down to eight or ten days of rations.

(narrator) There was a war of words between Presidents Davis and Lincoln.

The men were cautious not to take the first shot and begin the war.

I think they knew one another.

They had respect for one another.

Both of them were alike, I believe, in that they were men of moral perceptions.

They sought what was right.

They wanted to do what was right.

Each of them was convinced that they were the patriots, that their nationalism was correct, that they had the most valid view.

(narrator) Negotiations were failing.

Lincoln knew a relief ship would have to be sent, or Anderson would have to pull out.

He decided to resupply the fort, and in early April, a relief expedition headed for Charleston.

Lincoln sent Governor Pickens a message stating he was sending ships to resupply Sumter: "If they are not fired upon, we will not act upon you."

Meanwhile, Confederate President Davis had decided to take both Fort Pickens and Sumter.

Before final plans were made, Davis received Lincoln's letter to Pickens.

Davis would never allow the relief ships to reach Sumter.

On April 11, 1861, three members of Beauregard's staff landed on the wharf at Fort Sumter and demanded the fort's surrender.

Anderson replied he would be starved out in a few days anyway.

The Confederates passed this message to President Davis, who replied, "If Anderson will state an early time to leave, "we will not fire on the fort.

If he declines, then fire on the fort."

The Confederates returned, and Anderson stated he would not leave until the 15th.

Deemed too late by the Southerners present, Anderson was informed the fort would be fired upon.

On April 12, 1861, at 4:30 in the morning, a shell was fired from Fort Johnson.

It exploded over Fort Sumter, signaling the other batteries to fire.

The Civil War had begun.

For the men inside the fort, the pounding of incoming must have been deafening.

They endured a great deal during the bombardment.

This was most of these men's first exposure to warfare.

They'd been exposed to firing of guns because they had tested their guns and been trained with their guns.

But it's a different thing when you're on the receiving end of incoming shells.

They were exposed to the bursting of mortar shells exposing them to shell fragments bursting inside the fort.

The walls of the fort received a significant pounding, and both the sound and the feel of the impact must have been earthmoving.

The bombardment was so intense, Anderson ordered the men to stay under cover.

In fact, his largest guns were up on the parapet in the barbette gun emplacements.

They were so exposed to enemy fire he ordered no one up there, to remain in the casemates.

It must have been horrendous to withstand this bombardment and not be able to fire back.

The bombardment started before it was light, so Anderson had ordered no firing until it was full light so they would have a better chance of seeing their targets and hitting what they were shooting at.

That's the main reason he withheld fire.

But over the course of the 34-hour bombardment, Confederates fired an estimated 3,000 cannonballs, projectiles, at Fort Sumter but only hit the exterior 600 times.

We don't know exactly how many rounds landed inside the fort, but the rounds that landed inside did the most damage.

Solid cannonballs heated in hot shot furnaces here at Fort Moultrie and fired in mortars arched over the walls of the fort landed in the enlisted men's barracks and the officers' quarters and set them on fire.

These fires would force Anderson to surrender the fort because if the fires burned down to the powder magazine, and the powder magazine blew up, it would have a tremendous effect and loss of men and the defensive capabilities of the fort.

(narrator) Charlestonians had watched from the rooftops and most rejoiced.

During the early portion of the bombardment, I believe that the citizens of Charleston were very pleased at the fact that these Northern intruders were being shelled.

But as the bombardment went on and the fort continued to return fire, they developed a very sincere respect for these men that would defend this one little portion of the federal government from the onslaught of the entire Confederacy.

Other Southern states seceded after the fall of Fort Sumter.

Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers brought the remaining states, like Virginia, into the Confederacy.

(narrator) One surprising aspect of the first battle of the Civil War, a conflict costing hundreds of thousands of lives, was that no soldier on either side was killed during the 34-hour fight.

That's just amazing that that much firing went on for that length of time, especially in Fort Sumter, that no one was killed or seriously injured.

It's a tribute to the fort and its defensive capabilities and also to Anderson that he was able to protect his men sufficiently that no one would be seriously hurt during that time, and on the point of the Confederates, that they were able to man their guns and continue firing and not receive any casualties from the returning federal fire.

(narrator) Another reason Anderson had to surrender the fort was his lack of offensive capabilities.

He suffered from a shortage of powder bags.

His cannon had no breech sights, and for the bulk of the engagement, had only six cannon employed and could not use exploding shells because there were no fuses.

On April 14th, Anderson and his men were preparing to leave Fort Sumter when the first casualty of the Civil War occurred.

Well, as part of the surrender ceremonies, Major Anderson was allowed to fire a 100-cannon salute in honor of the Union.

And while that was going on-- they were just firing blanks.

They weren't firing any cannonballs or projectiles out of the guns, just blanks.

One of the cannons discharged prematurely, and Private Daniel Hough was in the wrong place when that happened, and he was almost instantly killed by the discharge of the gun.

(narrator) Two nations were now at war with each other.

Their leaders had to deal with the future.

I think Lincoln saw himself as having acted with restraint, with dignity, with caution, and with cleverness.

And, as it ended up, the South fired on Fort Sumter, which gave Lincoln the opportunity to do what he surely knew must have been necessary, to stand and hold the territories.

It enabled the Upper South to find a place in the Union that would, perhaps, not have been possible otherwise.

Davis, I cannot imagine, had any regret either.

It's a wonderful phrase that the South would have died of boredom had they not had something to do.

For months, Southerners had spoken of their valor, their bravery, their...permanence.

Without anything to fight against, it was becoming frustrating.

(narrator) From April 1861 to April 1863, there was no major attempt on Fort Sumter.

This gave the Confederates time to repair the damage done in the initial assault.

The exterior of the fort was in pretty good shape.

The main problem was the destruction done to the officers' quarters and the enlisted men's barracks.

The debris and rubble from the bombardment had to be removed and the barracks and the quarters rebuilt, offices and the fort put in a more defensive condition.

So what Beauregard looked at is preparing the fort as rapidly as he could for defense.

It was thought that the Federals would return very quickly in an attempt to retake Fort Sumter, which really did not materialize.

There wasn't a serious or real attempt to retake Fort Sumter until April 1863.

As time went on, the Confederates had the time they needed to prepare the fort for proper defense.

(narrator) In the fall of 1861, an event south of Fort Sumter would signal the beginning of the North's drive to take the fort and the city.

The federal government was determined to blockade the Confederate coast.

The North had to establish along the Southern shores places where ships could gather to be refueled, repaired, and resupplied.

Such areas are known as coaling stations.

The North chose to take as a coaling site Port Royal Sound, 60 miles down the coast from Charleston.

The area was not well developed, but it was valuable to the North.

Confederates, in the summer of 1861, began to fortify Port Royal.

They built Fort Walker on Hilton Head.

Across the bay on Bay Point, they constructed Fort Beauregard.

These were the principle fortifications guarding Port Royal Sound.

They weren't so much built to protect Port Royal Sound as to keep the North out.

The Confederates had no railroad to this area.

There was no port here for the South.

But the North wanted this area.

They constructed Forts Beauregard and Walker to protect the sound.

(narrator) In late October 1861, Union flag officer Samuel du Pont assembled the largest Northern fleet up to that time and sailed for Port Royal Sound, arriving in early November.

The port was guarded by two forts, one on each side of the harbor entrance: Fort Beauregard at Bay Point and Fort Walker on Hilton Head Island.

On the morning of November 7, 1861, the North opened fire on the two forts.

The Northern guns were too much for the Confederates on shore.

After six hours of extensive shelling, the rebel soldiers abandoned both forts.

The North had taken Port Royal Sound.

Once the area was seized by the North, it'll be one of the largest military installations in the world, home to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, responsible for the South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida blockade.

It'll also become the headquarters for the Department of the South, the army's headquarters for this area.

And from here will come your expeditions against Savannah, Jacksonville, and, eventually, Charleston.

(narrator) Following du Pont's triumph, the North wanted him to steam into Charleston, but he refused.

Charleston was considered too well defended.

Du Pont did not want to risk sending his fleet into Charleston.

Even after he captured Port Royal, he was being pressured to attack Charleston, but he's not going to do so.

Charleston, because of Fort Sumter, was well defended.

Fort Sumter controlled Charleston Harbor.

The guns mounted on the top tier of Fort Sumter could fire down through the decks of the wooden warships, hit things like the engines and powder magazines.

Du Pont didn't want this if he could avoid it.

(narrator) Following the fall of Port Royal Sound, General Robert E Lee, commander of the area, adopted a policy of pulling men from the Sea Islands, out of the range of the North's naval guns.

But Confederate soldiers were being sent to Virginia.

The pullback was so severe, the rebels abandoned forts along the mouth of the Stono River, fifteen miles southeast of Charleston.

The situation in late 1861 had the federal troops controlling Port Royal Sound and planning to move towards Charleston.

But for now, with the harbor in Confederate hands, the city seemed protected.

That changed on the night of December 11, 1861.

A fire of unknown origin raced across the peninsula, gutting almost a third of the city.

Five hundred homes, dozens of businesses, and five churches were engulfed.

Included in the wreckage was the Hall of St. Andrew's Society, Secession Hall.

The fire spared the Mills House, where Lee was staying when the blaze swept by.

Charleston had suffered disastrous fires, but she'd been able to rebuild.

Because of the war, she was not able to rebuild, and many of the famous Brady photographs of Charleston that show a devastated city give the impression that this was a result of the damage done by the war.

Of course, it wasn't.

It was done by that destructive fire.

It certainly could not have helped the psychological mood of the city or the citizens to have huge areas that were burned out that could not be rebuilt.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (narrator) The North did not know of the evacuation of the forts along the Stono River.

Though they probably would have found out, their knowledge of the Confederate pullback was hastened by 23-year-old Charleston slave, Robert Smalls.

In 1862, Smalls commandeered the transport ship "Planter," a vessel he had been piloting around the harbor, running missions for the Confederate government.

Smalls, his family, and other slaves sailed to Union naval ships outside the harbor and gave his boat to the North with valuable information about Confederate movements.

Smalls will actually announce to the Northerners that the Confederates have evacuated the mouth of the Stono River.

This completely surprises the North because this opens an avenue at Charleston-- the avenue the British used during the Revolutionary War-- to come along the Stono, avoid the harbor forts, land on James Island or even farther, cross over to the mainland and attack Charleston up the Charleston Neck.

As soon as they learn about this from Smalls, they begin an expedition to land soldiers on James Island to see what the fortifications, the Confederate defenses, are like.

(narrator) In late spring, 1862, divisions of Union soldiers began landing on the southwestern tip of James Island and made their way inland.

By mid-June, federal troops were on the outskirts of Secessionville, a small community on the island.

The Union commander, David Hunter, was a very cautious commander.

He believed he was outnumbered, even after he landed on James Island.

He's going to leave James Island and instruct the man left behind, General Benham, only to attack or show any types of aggressive moves against the Confederates if necessary to help protect his camps.

Benham is going to take these orders and read more into them.

The Union camps were under the guns at Secessionville.

There was an unfinished fort at Secessionville that lobbed shells into the Union positions.

He took this as an opportunity to launch an attack against the fort.

(narrator) The fort attacked was Fort Lamar.

On the morning of June 16th, the North stormed the structure.

The Confederates at the fort were caught off guard, but quickly recovered, and the battle was on.

After six hours of heavy fighting, including several federal assaults on Fort Lamar, the battle ended with a decisive Confederate victory.

The North suffered almost 600 dead and wounded; the South, less than 200.

[drumbeats thudding] The North had hoped to march through James Island on their path to Charleston, but the disaster at Secessionville prompted the federal government to look for another way into the city.

In November of 1861, du Pont had presided over the largest United States naval squadron in taking Port Royal Sound.

Now, in April of 1863, the North provided him with the most powerful naval fleet.

The goal was one du Pont had refused earlier, to sail into Charleston Harbor, past Fort Sumter and the surrounding batteries, and take the city.

This time, du Pont's fleet would consist of Union ironclads, the heaviest-gunned, best-protected vessels the North had.

The next step was really started by the navy.

The navy decided to send the majority of their monitors, these very specialized, ironclad warships, down to du Pont at Port Royal for du Pont to lead an attack against Charleston using the monitors.

This first class of monitors, called the Passaic class, are sent to du Pont.

He's going to be given a couple other ironclads, new ironsides, and the "Keokuk."

The Navy Department believes these ironclads by themselves could force their way into Charleston.

(narrator) This was not to happen.

Du Pont, fearing a mined harbor, which was not accurate, decided against trying to take Charleston, and wanted to reduce Fort Sumter and the surrounding batteries.

It was a mistake.

The ironclads lost their formation and were easy targets for the Confederate cannons.

After only three hours of battle, the ironclads withdrew, their guns only hitting Fort Sumter 55 times.

The federal ships suffered over 300 hits.

One ironclad had 90 hits alone.

It sank the next morning.

The Confederates salvaged both guns from the ship.

Today, one of the salvaged cannon is mounted in Charleston at the Battery.

Du Pont resigned his command after the April attack.

With Folly Island in Union hands, the Federals took the next step in capturing Fort Sumter, taking Confederate-controlled Morris Island.

A strip of valuable property for both sides, the northern tip of the island was at the entrance to Charleston Harbor and was the closest land to Fort Sumter.

The North thought if it could shell Sumter from that tip, Cummings Point, it could reduce the fort and take Charleston.

The North decides on a joint expedition, an army-navy attack, against Charleston.

This is an attack designed to capture Morris Island, this one, little barrier island out on the harbor of Charleston, and use that as a gun platform to destroy Fort Sumter.

They can destroy Fort Sumter, obviously, removing the guns that so bedeviled the ironclad fleet.

If they can seize Fort Sumter, they can remove the obstructions or cut a hole in them.

Then the ironclads, can go into the harbor.

This was the plan for the attack during the summer of 1863.

(narrator) Late June and early July 1863, Yankee troops, under the cover of darkness, constructed batteries along the north shore of Folly Island.

These batteries would be used as the North landed on Morris Island to counter the expected Confederate fire.

This action, combined with the Northern naval guns off shore, is believed to be the first use of covering fire by an American landing force.

(male speaker) On July 10, 1863, they made an amphibious attack on Morris Island.

The navy ships were firing on the island.

They had mortars stationed in Folly River.

Troops came over from Folly.

Some came up from Folly on barges and landed.

The Southern troops were few in number on the island, and they overran the lower part of the island fairly fast.

The Union troops then rapidly moved to right close to Fort Wagner, By then, the forces had been up, most of them, two nights in a row.

They had no sleep.

It was the middle of a hot summer.

They were exhausted, and so they decided to wait until the next day to attack.

(narrator) The object of that attack was Battery Wagner, a Confederate earthen fort in the Northern part of Morris Island.

Wagner was an outpost of Sumter, and the North knew the key to the fort was control of Morris Island.

On the morning of July 11th, the Federals made their move against the battery but were repelled by the Confederates.

In the brief skirmish, the North lost over 300 men; the South, around a dozen.

One week later, the North would try another land assault, a battle made famous by its participants.

In early 1863, the United States government granted permission for the formation of black regiments.

This resulted in the 54th Massachusetts, the first black troops recruited in the North.

The original company was formed because in 1863, January of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln put forth the Emancipation Proclamation giving a lot of African Americans the right to bear arms.

Now, there were other units, even before the Emancipation Proclamation came about, but the Emancipation Proclamation stated specifically that African Americans could be armed.

And, as a result of that, Governor John A. Andrew of the state of Massachusetts during the Civil War was given the task of forming an African-American unit that would actually serve the state of Massachusetts and, of course, be mustered in to fight against the Confederacy.

(narrator) 25-year-old Colonel Robert Shaw was chosen to command the 54th.

The son of wealthy abolitionists, Colonel Shaw knew the extra dangers of leading black troops into battle.

He accepted the honors of leading this unit into battle, but he accepted them grudgingly because he knew that if he was caught leading blacks into war against the Confederacy, he would be killed if he was captured.

And the same holds true for the soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.

(narrator) The 54th were sent to Beaufort, then up the coast to James Island, where they participated in a small skirmish July 16th, the Battle of Sol Legare Island.

Two days later, on July 18th, they would participate in the next assault on Battery Wagner.

This was their opportunity to show that the black man could actually fight because when they first were mustered into service, the army thought that they could serve better with a pick and shovel rather than a musket.

So Battery Wagner was the perfect opportunity to prove otherwise.

Besides, the eyes of the world were upon the men of the 54th.

Of course, Colonel Shaw was given a choice, and he actually chose to lead the assault because he knew that these men had to prove themselves.

(narrator) On the day of the assault, Northern ships pounded Battery Wagner.

(McGill) At 7:45 p.m., the cannonade stopped, and at that point, Colonel Shaw gave us the command to move forward.

As we moved forward, the sea was to the right, and the marsh was to the left.

Some of the men had to march in water waist deep just to maintain that formation.

When we got about 200 yards from that fort, those Confederates opened up, sometimes cutting sections in our ranks as much as 20 feet.

Some men had to march over dead bodies, mangled bodies, body parts, just to get to the fort, and when we got to the fort, the 54th had not yet fired a single shot.

Colonel Shaw climbed the wall, and when he got up to the top, he yelled, "Onward, 54th, onward!"

At that point, he was shot dead.

The rest of the men came up, and when we looked down in there, there must have been 1500 Confederates.

And at that point, it was hand-to-hand combat.

We continued to fight, and our supporting element started to fire, sometimes firing into the backs of the 54th.

The rest of the supporting element started to come up, only to receive the same fate of the 54th.

And at battle's end, we took a toll, and out of 600 men that the 54th sent into that battle, there were 276 of us killed, wounded, or missing.

Out of 3,000 federal troops sent into that battle, there were 1500 of us killed, wounded, or missing.

(narrator) The men of the 54th were probably aware, on Battery Wagner, that most of them would die.

I think it's like in any war, that troops are used for shock troops.

Canadian troops in World War I and World War II were often used like this.

And they see it as an honor.

Perhaps this is how they prove themselves.

They had to know that this was going to be a slaughter, which it turned out to be because the Confederates had brought in reinforcements by the time they attacked.

It, it's hard to explain how people act in war.

It's... people are often willing to sacrifice themselves for a cause.

(narrator) Following Battery Wagner and Morris Island, the 54th would continue to participate in the war.

And in August of 1865, the 54th Massachusetts was mustered out of service in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

(narrator) Despite the naval bombardment and the use of hundreds more men, the second land battle for Battery Wagner ended even worse for the Union.

The North casualty list was over 1500 troops.

The South lost 200 men.

Federal commanders, not wanting another land assault, decided to trench through the sand, paralleling the front of Wagner, eventually putting the Northern troops close enough to the fort to overwhelm the Confederates.

While digging, the men in the trenches were under constant threat from the guns of Wagner, But the Confederate fort itself was under siege from the Northern naval guns still firing at the structure.

A combination of both sides under constant assault, intensive physical activity, and it being the middle of summer, both sides were under horrendous conditions.

Both sides suffer from the heat.

You can imagine fighting a campaign along a sea island in the summer.

Both sides suffer from lack of water, digging wells only a couple feet into the sandy soil.

Didn't taste very well if you could even get it that did not have salt in it.

Food was a problem.

Most of the time, the food was cold.

Union troops were living on hard crackers and what could be used in the field.

The Confederates did get food from Charleston, but it reached Battery Wagner cold.

The Union troops seemed to suffer more than the Confederates.

The Confederates were rotated out of Battery Wagner.

There was a high turnover of troops out there.

Union troops had nowhere else to go.

(narrator) On September 5th, part of a Union trench was within 100 yards of Wagner.

The North planned to try and take the fort on the 7th.

However, on the 6th, the Confederates, wanting to save Wagner's men, ordered the fort and the rest of Morris Island evacuated.

The North had control of the entire island.

With the North establishing a strong presence, they decided to construct, in the swamps along the western part of the land, a battery.

In the structure would be a Parrott rifle capable of hitting its sole target, Charleston.

On August 22nd, the weapon, known as the Swamp Angel, began firing into the city.

For the next two days, almost 40 projectiles fell on the city.

Fortunately for the citizens of Charleston, the Swamp Angel burst on the 36th round.

The weapon was not replaced with one as powerful, but it showed that the North was willing to fire on the city, despite its civilian population.

At Fort Sumter today, you can view embedded projectiles in the walls.

From the start of the Civil War to near its end, the fort was under attack.

From August 1863 to February 1865, the North fired over 4300 rounds at the fort.

(Hatcher) Over the course of about 18 months, Fort Sumter would receive 3,500 tons of Union naval and army ordnance fired at it, totaling 7 million pounds of projectiles.

And it was the most heavily bombarded speck of ground on the North American continent.

(narrator) During that year-and-a-half of bombardment, Confederate casualties totaled just over 300.

The bombings would be both major and minor, lasting months at a time.

The first major shelling lasted 16 days, and when it ended on September 2, 1863, 6,800 rounds had been fired, two Confederates killed, 50 wounded, and the fort's cannons silenced.

From late October to early December 1863, 1,800 more rounds were fired towards Sumter, with 100 Confederate casualties.

On October 29th, 30th, and 31st, the fort received over 3,000 shots.

A detachment of a dozen men were killed instantly when a shell brought down overhanging rubble, crushing the sleeping soldiers below.

The men at the fort were constantly repairing the fort, using wicker baskets filled with wet cotton and sand to buffer the crumbling walls.

By day, the cannon fire would do damage, and by night, repairs were made.

According to one federal official, by late August 1863, the fort was rubble, with no real offensive capabilities.

These are the ruins of the officers' quarters at Fort Sumter.

Along this area were powder magazines where ammunition was stored.

When you view the scene today, you notice an entranceway tilted forward.

This happened during an explosion of the powder magazine on December 11, 1863.

The force of the blast was so powerful, it broke the archway from the surrounding wall.

(Hatcher) There was the main powder magazine of the fort and an outer, smaller powder magazine adjoining it.

The Confederates had converted the smaller or outer powder magazine into a food storage area, the commissary, and in December of 1863, as some of the men were lined up receiving their morning rations, it's not known the cause, but the main powder magazine blew up and killed a number of Confederate soldiers.

All the men lined up in the commissary were killed.

The cause of that explosion is still unknown, but when the Federals saw what was going on, they started bombarding Fort Sumter and fired over 500 artillery rounds at the fort to add to the confusion and the attempts to put the fires out.

(narrator) Eleven soldiers were killed, 41 wounded.

A Confederate major stationed at the fort at the time of the explosion wrote, "With the loss of living space due to the incident, "we were suffering from extreme overcrowding.

"If the enemy had kept up their intense bombardment "they started the day of the fire "and extended it, we would have abandoned Fort Sumter."

Confederate forces at Charleston were anxious to break the Union blockade lying off the harbor entrance.

An experimental craft was brought to the city in mid-1863 to try such an expedition.

The craft was the CSS "H.L.

Hunley," the world's first true submarine able to completely submerge.

On the night of February 17, 1864, the "Hunley" was allowed to attack the blockade, but had to stay at the surface.

From a 20-foot pole attached to the Hunley was a torpedo.

The pole was designed to disengage from the submarine when reaching its target.

The target this night was the Northern warship "Housatonic."

At 9:00 that night, an officer on the "Housatonic" spotted what looked like a log heading towards the ship.

Moments later, the ship was struck, followed by a loud explosion.

The "Housatonic" sank in minutes.

The "Hunley" and her crew, for reasons never discovered, did not survive the impact.

The blockade of Charleston Harbor continued.

By the beginning of February 1865, the fort was still in Southern hands.

It was only by the action of another Union army, over a hundred miles away, headed by General William T. Sherman did the Confederates abandon Fort Sumter, the surrounding batteries, and Charleston.

Well, what would happen was Sherman's army, advancing from Savannah to Columbia.

In fact, the day that Sherman's troops arrived at Columbia, February 17, 1865, is the day that the Confederates evacuated Charleston.

The Confederates realized that if they stayed in Charleston, their main supply lines running down from Columbia would be cut off.

They would, in turn, be isolated and could not properly defend Fort Sumter and Charleston from the Union forces on Morris Island and off the harbor with the Union navy.

(narrator) On February 18, 1865, the United States took back control of Fort Sumter and occupied Charleston.

The retreating Confederates made note to say in April 1861, the North had surrendered the fort.

On this February day, they had abandoned it.

When you visit Fort Sumter today, you see evidence of the struggle of two warring nations: one wanting and willing to hang on, the other wanting and willing to take back.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning www.compuscripts.com ♪