Fort Sumter

Term Paper Title	Fort Sumter
# of Words	759
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.04

Fort Sumter

     Fort Sumter is located on the South side of Charleston Harbor in South Carolina.  Construction of the fort started in 1829 by the United States, just recently formed, to safeguard the South Carolina coastline.  The fort was named after a distinguished South Carolinian Revolutionary War hero.  Fort Sumter was constructed in the form of many other historical forts of the 1800's.  It had four perpendicular walls that were 170-190 feet in length.  These barriers were a towering fifty feet above the water and were five feet thick.  The walls of the fort were made of  island sea shells and granite.  The fort had three gray colored tiers.  The first tier was the gorge or ravine.  It was used for security against enemies who were on foot.  A sally port pierced the center of the gorge, opening onto a wharf.  The second tier held the officers' lodges and the soldiers living quarters.  The third tier was the zone where the mounted guns and cannons were located.  Fort Sumter was built to hold 650 soldiers and had room to accommodate 135 mounted guns and cannons.  But by December 1860 the fort was only ninety percent completed, with only fifteen cannons mounted and ready to fire.
     Major Robert Anderson was a Kentucky career soldier who was stationed with his men at Fort Moultrie.  He decided to move his eighty- five men to Fort Sumter because it was farther from the shore than Fort Moultrie.  Anderson's men had an abundant amount of shot, shells, and powder.  But they had very few friction primers, cartridge bags, or musket casings.  Food was also very scarce in the fort.  The men mainly ate grains and drank water.  The men at Fort Sumter were running low on supplies.  Because the Confederates had blocked off all routes ,  Union ships could not come down the shore to bring reinforcements that would help the men at the fort.  On January 9, 1861, the ship Star of the West came to bring supplies, food, and  200 reinforcements to Fort Sumter.  When men at the fort saw this they were filled with great hope.  The ship retreated as soon as they were fired at by Confederate soldiers.
     The battle at Fort Sumter began on April 12, 1861, early in the morning.  Weeks prior to the batt...

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