Here’s what happened in April 1861, leading up to the firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, which spurred the launch of the American Civil War.

Confederate flags will fly above the parade ground inside Fort Sumter after being removed from the fort’s outer wall following the shooting deaths of nine black parishioners at Charleston’s ...

You probably remember Fort Sumter as the place where the first shot of the Civil War was fired back in 1861. Today, you can see for yourself where all the action happened by taking a ferry to the ...

On April 12, 1861, Captain George S. James fired the first Confederate shot at Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, leading to a siege, a Union retreat and the start of the Civil War. Exhibits ...

Usually, books about Sumter end at this point. But Hatcher carries the story of the fort through the entire war. For two years after the capture of Sumter, the fort was not significantly involved in ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of ...