While the fort visible today bears little resemblance to what it looked like during the Civil War it is that era for which Fort Sumter is famous.
The Confederates garrisoned Fort Sumter for almost four years. Two years after the signal shot that started the Civil War, Fort Sumter became the focus of a long defense in which determined Confederate soldiers kept the US Army and Navy at bay for 587 days. In the summer of 1863, when Federal forces gained control of Morris Island, the bombardment of Charleston and Fort Sumter began in earnest. Union rifled artillery reduced Fort Sumter to a ruin, and Confederate soldiers and enslaved laborers worked to dig bombproofs. The damage wrought by Union artillery and the Confederate repairs to Fort Sumter transformed the former three-tiered brick and masonry fort into an earthwork. The Siege of Charleston continued until February 17, 1865, the longest siege in US military history. During the Confederate defense of Fort Sumter, at least fifty-two Confederates were killed in action, and an unknown number of enslaved African-American laborers died.
--from Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie NHP website
We ventured inside the walls of the fort fairly quickly once we were off the ferry. You can see a 360° view of the interior here.
The original walls were about 55 feet high, two stories higher than the current dimensions.
Before too long one of the rangers gave a very engaging presentation that I recorded. She let us know that each ranger prepares their own program that goes in depth into part of the fort's history. Her story was very engaging and I'd encourage you to listen to her--pardon the movement of my phone as I was trying to juggle it along with fussy kids and it didn't make for the smoothest video, but the audio quality is good.
There were quite a few cannon sprinkled throughout the fort's grounds.
This massive black concrete structure (Battery Huger) "was built in 1899 in response to the Spanish-American War." It used to be partially underground on this side before being dug out by the National Park Service after they started interpreting the site.
Yet more firepower.
The inside exhibits were very crowded with groups of kids.
Nevertheless I was able to enjoy several of the displays such as this explanation of the Atlantic Fortifications which reminded me of our visit to Maine's Fort Knox the year before.
Here you can get a glimpse of what the fort used to look like. While technically never completed, the walls were much higher than they are today.
This Palmetto Guard flag was the first Confederate banner raised over Fort Sumter following its capture.
After leaving the air conditioned exhibits area behind we walked out onto the upper portion of the battery.
From here you could get a great view of the older portion of the fort.
You could also get a good view of the section of land outside of the fort's walls.
Here you can see more of the interior of the fort. All of this area was underground when the battery was in action and as mentioned above only dug out after the Park Service came in so that they could start to interpret the older parts of the fort.
Here you can see the ground level comparison on the other side of the battery.
By this point in the tour I was rushing around grabbing pictures before we had to leave. While I definitely felt rushed I also felt as though I'd been able to see a good bit of the fort. While it left a desire to come back (especially when the kids are older) I didn't feel as though I'd been totally cheated out of a good experience by the shortness of our time within the walls.
This rear-wall was not as heavily reinforced as the seaward side of the fort and so it was especially vulnerable to Federal shelling when Union troops took Morris Island.
Here is another good view of the battery.
Before heading towards the ferry I took a look at the cannons inside the casemates.
This is a 42-pounder that was rifled by Confederate forces to increase its accuracy and range.
I think I was the last person to leave the fort and head to the ferry.
For some reason this is the only shot I took of the actual entrance to the fort.
I headed towards the boat and up the gangplank.
Behind us the fort drifted into the distance.
And another ferry came up to take its turn at the dock.
You can see a number of other pictures of our visit to the fort in this folder.
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