Confederates occupy Fort Sumter

Confederates occupy Fort Sumter, April 14, 1861

• [SIEGE OF FORT SUMTER] Major Robert Anderson formally surrenders Fort Sumter. At 11:00am a Confederate steamer arrives at Fort Sumter to move the Union troops to the Federal fleet off the Charleston Bar. According to the generous terms of surrender, Anderson salutes the United States flag with 100 barbette guns on the ramparts as it is lowered. 

Accident during Sumter surrender ceremony

A stiff breeze is blowing into the muzzles of the guns and one of the smoldering cartridges blows back into a pile of cartridges in the broken masonry near a gun. The pile explodes, sending pieces of broken masonry off like shell fragments. US Private Daniel Hough is instantly killed; another is fatally injured, dying soon afterward at a Charleston hospital. Four others are injured. One of the injured is treated in a hospital and sent north after Anderson leaves. The others are treated and sent home with their comrades. At 4:00pm, South Carolina State Militia take Fort Sumter after the evacuation. 

The Union troops are placed on the relief transport steamer Baltic with Navy agent Gustavus V. Fox and his 200 reinforcements. They will wait there all night so they could see in the morning to cross the Charleston Bar./1861

Charleston Battery, April 1861

• Parades, celebrations and a general holiday fills the air in Charleston, South Carolina today as the defeated Union garrison of Fort Sumter leaves. Across the state of South Carolina, thousands of men volunteer to defend their state from the Northern aggressor. On this Sunday, Charleston churches hold special services of thanksgiving. South Carolina Governor Pickens says, “We have met them and we have conquered."/1861
• After receiving official notice of the surrender of Fort Sumter, Lincoln calls an emergency Cabinet meeting. As if by design, Lincoln emerges to call for 75,000 volunteers to quash the rebellion and for a session of Congress to meet beginning July 4./1861

Related articles

• Firing on Fort Sumter (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Act of war: Sumter relief fleet sails for Charleston (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Confederates occupy Fort Sumter (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Saturday, April 13, 1861 (blogs.the-american-interest.com)
• April 14, 1861: Surrender of Fort Sumter (gathkinsons.net)