Fort Sumter

American  

noun

1. a fort in SE South Carolina, in the harbor of Charleston: its bombardment by the Confederates opened the Civil War on April 12, 1861.

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Fort Sumter British  

/ ˈsʌmtə /

noun

1. a fort in SE South Carolina, guarding Charleston Harbour. Its capture by Confederate forces (1861) was the first action of the Civil War

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Sumter, Fort Cultural  

1. A fort at the entrance to the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina; the location of the first military engagement of the Civil War. In April 1861, several months after South Carolina had declared its secession from the United States, the militia of South Carolina demanded that the commander of the fort surrender. He refused, and the South Carolinians fired on the fort. There were no deaths in the incident. In response, however, President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to put down the “insurrection,” and the American Civil War began.

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Example Sentences

It’s also hard to dance around disparaging details at Fort Sumter National Monument, where Confederates fired the first shots of the Civil War; Ford’s Theater National Historic Site in Washington, D.C., where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated; and Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park, which commemorates the assassination of the country’s best known civil rights leader.

From Los Angeles Times

“The Marble Faun” was published in 1860, a year before Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter, and seven years after the author’s college friend, President Franklin Pierce, appointed him U.S. consul in Liverpool, England.

From The Wall Street Journal

The attack on Fort Sumter in 1861 enraged him.

From The Wall Street Journal

That is why a Confederate army began the war on April 12, 1861, attacking Fort Sumter, a U.S.

From Slate

At South Carolina’s Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, flagged titles focused on the history of slavery, including books like Harriet A. Jacobs’ “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and the essay collection “Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff on American Memory.”

From Salon