At 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861, Confederate guns opened fire on a tiny Union garrison — and the American Civil War began with a 34-hour bombardment and zero combat deaths.
Fort Sumter sat on an artificial island in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina — a symbol of federal authority deep in the heart of the new Confederacy. Major Robert Anderson and just 85 men were isolated there when Confederate forces surrounded them and demanded surrender in April 1861.
Confederate guns opened fire at 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861, beginning one of the most consequential bombardments in American history. Over 34 hours, Confederate artillery fired thousands of rounds into the fort, starting fires and slowly destroying the garrison's ability to fight back.
Anderson's garrison was badly outgunned from the start: the fort was designed for 135 cannons but only had 60 operational, and ammunition was running low. When the flagpole was shot down and fires spread out of control, Anderson agreed to surrender on April 13 rather than sacrifice his men pointlessly.
In a strange historical irony, not a single person was killed during the 34-hour bombardment itself. The war's first military deaths came during the surrender ceremony — when a spark ignited a pile of cartridges during a 100-gun salute to the U.S. flag, mortally wounding two Union soldiers.
Lincoln's response to the attack — calling for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion — immediately triggered four more Southern states to secede and join the Confederacy. What had been a dispute between some Southern states and the federal government became a massive continental war within days.
On April 14, 1865 — exactly four years after Anderson had lowered the Stars and Stripes in surrender — he returned to Fort Sumter to raise the same flag once more. That same night, Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre, making April 14, 1865 one of the most bittersweet days in American history.