CIVIL WAR BATTLEFIELDS

1 FORT SUMTER AND FORT MOULTRIE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

he first shots of the American Civil War were fired on Fort Sumter, situated on an island in mouth of the harbour at Charleston, South Carolina, on 12 April 1865. After hours of bombardment by Confederate batteries ringing the harbour, the Union garrison, under Major Robert Anderson, surrendered to the Confederates under General PGT Beauregard. In the wake of the surrender, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for Union volunteers, while young men in the southern states flocked to the Confederate banner. From the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center at Liberty Square, where a few exhibits depicting South Carolina’s heritage of secession may be viewed, visitors reach