Evacuation of Fort Moultrie and Occupation of Fort Sumter, South Carolina

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Evacuation of Fort Moultrie and Occupation of Fort Sumter, South Carolina - Major Robert Anderson and the Union garrison abandon Fort Moultrie and occupy the more defensible Fort Sumter in Charleston County, South Carolina during the late hours of December 26, 1860

  • This action probably continued into the early hours of December 27
  • Also referred to as, separately, Transfer from Fort Moultrie and Transfer to Fort Sumpter

Sub-Operations

Official Records

Evacuation of Fort Moultrie and Occupation of Fort Sumter, South Carolina Dispatches
These dispatches were compiled with primary source materials from The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Chapter 1)
December 26, 1860 - Major Robert Anderson to Adjutant General Samuel Cooper

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Reports of Maj. Robert Anderson, U.S. Army, of the evacuation of Fort Moultrie, S.C.

No. 11.]
FORT SUMTER, S.C.,
December 26, 1860
8 p.m.

(Received A.G.O., December 29.)

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that I have just completed, by the blessing of God, the removal to this fort of all of my garrison, except the surgeon, four non-commissioned officers, and seven men. We have one year's supply of hospital stores and about four months' supply of provisions for my command. I left orders to have all the guns at Fort Moultrie spiked, and the carriages of the 32-pounders, which are old, destroyed. I have sent orders to Captain Foster, who remains at Fort Moultrie, to destroy all the ammunition which he cannot send over. The step which I have taken was, in my opinion, necessary to prevent the effusion of blood. Respectfully, your obedient servant,

ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, First Artillery, Commanding.

to Colonel S. COOPER,
Adjutant-General.


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December 27, 1860 - Secretary John Buchanan Floyd to Major Robert Anderson

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Reports of Maj. Robert Anderson, U.S. Army, of the evacuation of Fort Moultrie, S.C.

[Telegram.]
WAR DEPARTMENT,
Adjutant-General's Office,
December 27, 1860.

Major ANDERSON,
Fort Moultrie:

Intelligence has reached here this morning that you have abandoned Fort Moultrie, spiked your guns, burned the carriages, and gone to Fort Sumter. It is not believed, because there is no order for any such movement. Explain the meaning of this report.

J.B. FLOYD,
Secretary of War


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December 27, 1860 - Major Robert Anderson to Secretary John B. Floyd

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Reports of Maj. Robert Anderson, U.S. Army, of the evacuation of Fort Moultrie, S.C.

[Telegram.]

CHARLESTON,
December 27, 1860.

Honorable J. B. FLOYD,
Secretary of War:

The telegram is correct. I abandoned Fort Moultrie because I was certain that if attacked my men must have been sacrificed, and the command of the harbor lost. I spiked the guns and destroyed the carriages to keep the guns from being used against us. If attacked, the garrison would never have surrendered without a fight.

ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, First Artillery.


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December 27, 1860 - Major Robert Anderson to Adjutant General Samuel Cooper

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Reports of Maj. Robert Anderson, U.S. Army, of the evacuation of Fort Moultrie, S.C.

No. 12.]

FORT SUMTER, S.C.,
December 27, 1860.

(Received A.G.O., December 31.)

COLONEL: I had the honor to reply this afternoon to the telegram of the honorable Secretary of War in reference to the abandonment of Fort Moultrie. In addition to the reasons given in my telegram and in my letter of last night, I will add as my opinion that many things convinced me that the authorities of the State designed to proceed to a hostile act. Under this impression I could not hesitate that it was my solemn duty to move my command from a fort which we could not probably have held longer than forty-eight or sixty hours, to this one, where my power of resistance is increased to a very great degree. The governor of this State sent down one of his aides to-day and demanded, "courteously, but peremptorily," that I should return my command to Fort Moultrie. I replied that I could not and would not do so. He stated that when the governor came into office he found that there was an understanding between his predecessor and the President that no re-enforcements were to be sent to any of these forts, and particularly to this one, and that I had violated this agreement by having re-enforced this fort. I remarked that I had not re-enforced this command, but that I had merely transferred my garrison from one fort to another, and that, as the commander of this harbor, I had a right to move my men into any fort I deemed proper. I told him that the removal was made on my own responsibility, and that I did it because we were in a position that we could not defend, and also under the firm belief that it was the best means of preventing bloodshed. This afternoon an armed steamer, one of two which have been watching these two forts, between which they have been passing to and fro or anchored for the last ten nights, took possession by escalate of Castle Pinckney. Lieutenant Meade made no resistance. He is with us to-night. They also took possession to-night of Fort Moultrie, from which I withdrew the remainder of my men this afternoon, leaving the fort in charge of the overseer of the men employed by the Engineer Department. We have left about one month's and a half of provisions in that fort; also some wood and coal and a small quantity of ammunition. We are engaged here to-day in mounting guns and in closing up some of the openings for the embrasures-temporarily closed by light boards, but which would offer but slight resistance no persons seeking entrance. If the workmen return to their work, which I doubt, we shall be enabled in three or four days to have a sufficient number of our guns mounted, and be ready for anything that may occur.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, First Artillery, Commanding.

to Colonel S. COOPER,
Adjutant-General.


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October 1, 1861 - Captain John Foster

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Extracts from annual report (October 1, 1861) of Captain John G. Foster, U.S. Corps of Engineers

...

Castle Pinckney, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. - Some necessary repairs were commenced upon this work in December, 1860, but before these were completed the fort was seized by the troops of the State of South Carolina, on the 27th of December. Lieutenant R. K. Meade, Corps of Engineers, who was in the immediate charge, was suffered to leave with the workmen; but all the public property in the fort was taken possession of, including the mess property and one month's provisions for the Engineer force. The armament of the fort was all mounted, except two or three guns on the barbette tier and one 42-pounder in the casemate tier. The carriages were in good order, and pretty good. The magazine was well furnished with implements, and also contained some powder. The fort was repaired three years ago, and was generally in excellent condition, one of the cisterns only wanting repairs.

Fort Johnson, Charleston, South Carolina. - The barracks and quarters were in such bad order as to be almost uninhabitable, and a large sum would be needed to repair them. The position was taken possession of by the State troops on the 2nd of January, 1861. A small battery of three guns was soon after built, adjoining the barracks.

Fort Sumter, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. - Vigorous operations were commenced on this fort in the month of August, 1860, with the view of placing it in a good defensive position as soon as possible. The casemate arches supporting the second tier of guns were all turned; the granite flagging for the second tier was laid on the right face of the work; the floors laid, and the iron stairways put up, in the east barracks; the traverse circles of the first tier of guns reset; the bluestone flagging laid in all the guns' rooms of the right and left faces of the first tier; and the construction of the embrasures of the second tier commenced at the time the fort was occupied by Major Anderson's command, on the 26th of December, 1860. The fears of an immediate attack, and disloyal feelings, induced the greater portion of the Engineer employes to leave at this time. But those that remained, fifty-five in number, reduced towards the end of the investment to thirty-five, were made very effective in preparing for a vigorous defense.

The armament of the fort was mounted and supplied with maneuvering implements; machicoulis galleries, splinter-proof shelters, and traverses were constructed; the openings left for the embrasures of the second tier were filled with brick and stone and earth, and those in the gorge with stone and iron and lead concrete; mines were established in the wharf and along the gorge; the parade was cleared, and communications opened to all parts of the fort and through the quarters.

The fort was bombarded on the 12th and 13th of April by the rebels, and evacuated by Major Anderson's command on the 14th of April. During the bombardment, the officers' quarters were set on fire by hot shot from the rebel batteries, and they, with the roofs of the barracks, were entirely consumed. The magazines were uninjured by the fire. The bombardment dismounted one gun, disabled two others, and ruined the stair towers and the masonry walls projecting above the parapet. No breach was effected in the walls, and the greatest penetration made by successive shots was twenty-two inches. Nearly all the material that had been obtained to construct the embrasures of the second tier, to flag this tier and the remainder of the first tier, and to finish the barracks, was used up in the preparations for defense.

Fort Moultrie, Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. - The work of preparing this fort for a vigorous defense commenced in August, 1860, and was diligently prosecuted up the day of its evacuation, December 26, 1860. In this time the large accumulation of sand, which overtopped the scarp wall on the sea front, was removed to the front and formed into a glacis; a wet ditch, fifteen feet wide, dug around the fort; two flanking caponieres of brick built, to flank with their fire the three water fronts; a bastioned for musketry constructed at the northwest angle; a picket fence built around the fort, bordering the ditch, and protected by a small glacis; merlons constructed on the whole of the east front; communication opened through the quarters, a bridge built, connecting them with the guard-house, and the latter looppholed for musketry, so as to serve for a citadel.

Means were also furnished to transport Major Anderson's command, and such public property as could be removed before the occupation of Fort Moultrie by the rebels, to Fort Sumter. Before evacuating the fort, the guns were spiked, the gun carriages on the front looking towards Fort Sumter burned, and the flagstaff cut down. A considerable quantity of Engineer implements and materials were unavoidably left in the fort.

Respectfully submitted.

J.G. FOSTER,
Captain, Engineers.


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