[HostileTerritory]

Although they had been confined inside Fort Sumter for more than three months, unsupplied and poorly nourished, the men of the Union garrison vigorously defended their post from the Confederate bombardment that began on the morning of April 12, 1861. Several times, red-hod cannonballs had lodged in the fort's wooden barracks and started fires. But each time, the Yankee soldiers, with a little help from an evening rainstorm, had extinguished the flames.

Can you imagine it? All Americans can agree to respect the bravery and courage of U.S. soldiers in the face of this attack.

[TexConfederate1861]

Absolutely. Anderson was a brave son of the South as well.

[Moose4]

Yep, I certainly can. It’s also interesting to note the Confederate gunners cheering when the Union garrison in Sumter returned fire, and allowing the Sumter garrison a hundred-gun salute (and to re-raise their flag) before being rowed out to the supply ships for a return back “up North.”

That’s an era of warfare that is long, long gone.

I did the Sumter tour a few years ago, and I think a good bit of the old 1861 fort got built over when the 20th-century guns got placed on the island. It’s kind of jarring to see the old fort, and then these huge bulbous black armored World War-era casemates right next to them. It surely wouldn’t be a nice place to be under fire, it’s very exposed and a LONG way from dry land.

}:-)4