Battle Breakdown: Fort Sumter

Welcome to my 1st Battle Breakdown: I will be breaking down battles in terms of troops, strategy, whats at stake for each side, commanders and who wins and who loses also what this means for the respective armies. I will be using The Everything Civil War Book as one of my resources and this Civil War Battles site for information and also some pictures. I will be doing Fort Sumter today and it might take two posts for some major battles. I will put more of my opinion in these then in the biographies.
Almost everyone knows the answer to question when asked. What was the first battle of the Civil War? Everyone usually says Fort Sumter. They would be correct but how much do you really know? It took place in Charleston Harbor, Charleston, South Carolina in April 1861 on the 12th and 13th. It was not a major battle in the war but it was a major political battle that showed the whole world the Confederate intentions. I will probably started each battle by giving some location and date and just some introductory stuff. Fort Sumter is the equivalent to the shot heard around the world in Revolutionary war.
The men who fought in Fort Sumter, were the men at the Fort. They were Union soldiers and the other side was Confederate who actually attacked. It is not well known how many men fought there but it is known that the Union was outnumbered and low on supplies. As the Dates imply it was a short lived battle. The first shot was at 4:30am on April 12th. The Confederacy offered a surrender but the Union refused.
The Command, was Robert Anderson for the Union and Pierre G. T. Beauregard for the Confederates. Not well known is Robert Anderson but Beauregard fought some other battles later in the war and had some success. Anderson was consider a failure after the battle but went to become Brigadier General in Kentucky.
The results of Fort Sumter are pretty obvious at a political stand point, As said Its showed the Confederates intentions and started the Civil War. It also forced Abraham Lincoln to call for 75,000 Volunteers to quell the rebellion. Fort Sumter was the battle that was seen around the world and because the south later wanted help from foreign countries, the south need to show they were willing to go to war. Fort Sumter is one of the most well known battles besides Gettysburg and Antietam and maybe Fredricksburg or Bulls run. Fort Sumter in short marked the start of a war that would kill over 600,000 people, Brother vs Brother and become one of the bloodiest wars our nation has seen besides War World 2.
If still want more information go the Civil Battles Site that I have hyperlinked on top.^ Its has a excerpt from a book. Or you could google it or use a encylopeida .


My Next Battle Breakdown: The First Battle of Bulls Run