Episode 2 of 2

Bombardment of Fort Sumter

Name: Bombardment of Fort Sumter
Start: 1861-04-12
End: 1861-04-13
Location: Fort Sumter

When: April 12–13, 1861
Where: Fort Sumter
Part of: Fort Sumter is bombarded and the American Civil War begins

South Carolina militia bombarded Fort Sumter on April 12–13, 1861, leading to its surrender and the start of the Civil War.

The Battle of Fort Sumter involved the bombardment of the fort near Charleston by South Carolina militia. Union forces were unable to withstand the attack, resulting in the surrender of the fort to Southern forces on April 13, 1861.

Sources

Battle of Fort Sumter Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-27
American Civil War Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.