1. Secession Begins United States of America The Attack on Fort Sumter

2. Main idea: Eleven southern states left the Union and formed their own government. “We are not enemies, but friends….We must not be enemies.” President Abraham Lincoln

3. Delegates from 7 southern states meet in Montgomery, Alabama February 4, 1861- the 7 states vote to form their own confederation. A confederacy is a political union of people. They believed that states should be allowed to decide their own laws: Ex. Decide if slavery was legal President Lincoln disagreed

4. South Carolina withdraws first People voted to break away or secede from the Union on December 20, 1860 Over the next 6 weeks, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas soon followed

5. Terms of the Confederacy The delegates decided that the confederation should have more power than the central government They called themselves the Confederate States of America They elected Jefferson Davis as their President

6. Fort Sumter, South Carolina, was important because it guarded Charleston harbor. The US (Union Army) still had troops in this fort. * The Civil War had now begun! Fort Sumter Why do you think the Confederacy attacked the fort?

7. Let’s take a trip to Charleston, SC Why would the southern states want to keep control of this fort?

8. Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor The Union had control of this key southern fort The Confederates knew controlling the fort meant controlling the ships and the harbor

9. President Lincoln was determined to find a way to hold the country together without giving in to Confederate demands He wanted:  To avoid a war with the southerners  The southern states to return to the Union…peacefully It was too late… Attack on Fort Sumter

10. Pvt. Edmund Ruffin, Confederate soldier who fired the first shot against Fort Sumter Maj. Robert Anderson, defender of Fort Sumter

11. The first shot of the American Civil War didn't hit anything. It was a 10-inch mortar shell that exploded above Fort Sumter as a signal for Confederate artillery to open fire on the Union-held fort.

13. View of Fort Sumter from Charleston

16. Fort during the battle

17. Our voyage begins here Liberty Square is the present day gateway to the fort. As you walk through the courtyard you are able to read messages from the past. Then you board a ferry for the hour ride to the site of the first shots that were fired.

18. Present day entrance to Fort Sumter

19. Five replicas of historic flags regularly fly over Fort Sumter. These represent a timeline of Civil War flags at the fort from 1861-1865.

20. The Battery This concrete structure occupies the middle of Fort Sumter.

21. A 42 pounder smoothbore cannon at Fort Sumter.

22. 100 pounder Parrott rifles still on their original carriages at Fort Sumter.

24. Ruins of Fort Sumter's Officer's Quarters and powder magazine

25. The Flag flies over Fort Sumter On April 14, 1865, Union Maj. Gen. Robert Anderson came out of retirement He re-raised the same U.S. flag over Fort Sumter that he had lowered in surrender four years earlier. This flag is now on exhibit at the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center.

26. Aerial view of Fort Sumter National Monument.

27. Reaction to Fort Sumter Lincoln’s Response -75,000 Volunteers and a blockade of all Southern ports Both sides prepare for war