Fort Sumter and the Opening of the Civil War
The April 1861 bombardment of Fort Sumter began the American Civil War in Charleston Harbor.
In April 1861, Confederate batteries in Charleston Harbor opened fire on Fort Sumter, a U.S. fortification on a man-made island at the harbor mouth. The brief bombardment and Federal surrender are widely treated as the opening engagement of the American Civil War.
Genealogically, Sumter research often leads to Confederate coastal defense units, Union naval and army service later in the war, civilian refugee files, and harbor-related occupations (pilots, stevedores, free Black craftsmen). Pair NPS interpretive material with Compiled Military Service Records and pension applications.