Ep. 2: Battle of Fort Sumter 1861: 34 Hours, Zero Dead, Then a Fatal Salute

April 1861. Fort Sumter is on fire, and its men are firing back with powder bags sewn from their own shirts, and from Major Anderson's socks. Thirty-four hours, more than 3,000 shells, and not one man on either side was killed. The first deaths came the next day, and no enemy fired the shot. Episode 2 of The Corporal's Sketchbook · Watch the series in order:    • The Corporal's Sketchbook: The Civil War, ...   Major Robert Anderson was a Kentuckian whose sympathies were "entirely with the South," which is exactly why Washington sent him to command Charleston's forts. He held Fort Sumter for the United States anyway. We follow his secret move to Sumter the day after Christmas 1860, the Star of the West shots that history mostly forgets, Beauregard aiming his guns at the West Point teacher who taught him artillery, the warship Powhatan sent to Florida instead, Roger Pryor refusing to fire the first gun, the signal shell from Fort Johnson (not Edmund Ruffin), Louis Wigfall's unauthorized surrender visit, Confederate gunners cheering Sumter's return fire, and the planned 100-gun salute that killed Private Daniel Hough and mortally wounded Private Edward Galloway. CHAPTERS 0:00 A fort on fire 0:58 Lincoln elected, South Carolina secedes 1:35 Major Anderson, the Kentuckian 2:18 The secret move to Fort Sumter 2:58 Star of the West: the shots nobody counts 3:39 The squeeze: Beauregard, the student 4:18 Lincoln's choice and the missing Powhatan 5:12 Surrender demand and the first gun 6:24 Socks and salt pork 7:43 The flag nailed up, and Wigfall's freelance visit 8:37 Enemies cheering, and zero killed 9:15 The salute: the war's first deaths 10:38 April 14, 1865 11:23 Next: The First Bloodshed in Anger ▶ Next episode: The First Bloodshed in Anger. Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers, Harpers Ferry burns, Nick Biddle is struck in Baltimore, and on April 19, 1861, Pratt Street explodes. Subscribe so you don't miss it. The Corporal's Sketchbook follows the Civil War battle by battle, plus the plots, riots and escapes in between. The channel is named for my great-great-great-grandfather, Cpl. Pierre Gentieu of the 13th Connecticut Volunteers, who sketched the war he fought in. SOURCES • Official Records, Series I, Vol. 1: Anderson's dispatches, Capt. J. G. Foster's engineer journal, and Ripley's report • J. G. Foster, "Sketch showing position of besieging batteries, April 12-13, 1861" (Library of Congress) • James Chester, "Inside Sumter in '61"; Stephen D. Lee, "The First Step in the War" (both in Battles and Leaders, Vol. 1, below) • Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial History of the Civil War, Vol. 1 (1866) • Mary Boykin Chesnut, diary, April 1861 • National Park Service: Fort Sumter Historical Handbook No. 12 (Frank Barnes); Five Flags Over Fort Sumter; Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie NHP • U.S. Naval Institute, Naval History; American National Biography and House Divided (Dickinson College); Papers of Abraham Lincoln; The Citadel Sources & further reading Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 1, by Robert U. Johnson and Clarence C. Buel, eds.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0890095698?... Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-'61, by Abner Doubleday: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1846778727?... As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. CREDITS Images: Library of Congress, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (CC0), U.S. National Archives, Internet Archive (Harper's Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion, 1866; Frank Leslie's The Soldier in Our Civil War, 1893; Field, Fort and Fleet, 1885; Crafts, 1868), Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Harper's Weekly, Currier & Ives, and public-domain scans via Wikimedia Commons. Maps: AWS Terrain Tiles (USGS/SRTM public data) and Natural Earth (public domain); battery positions after Foster's 1861 sketch. Audio: • Freesound CC0 recordings, with thanks: electra (442293), qubodup (187767, 184382), mozfoo (529239), sidohzen (165808), kostrava (320788), craigsmith (486027), iwanplays (567249), alancat (381645), shanevincent (764158), eguobyte (360703), spt3125 (24820, timpani). • "Yankee Doodle," U.S. Air Force Heritage of America Band (U.S. government work, PD); "Dixie," 1916 recording (PD). • Narration voice, background score, and additional sound effects and voices generated with ElevenLabs. #FortSumter #CivilWar #AmericanHistory