Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 73

Major Robert Anderson was the U.S. commander at Charleston, South Carolina. In late December he had abandoned his original location in Charleston, Fort Moultrie. Moultrie was too close to the city, now filling with pro-Southern rowdies (fortified by a few quarts of liquor), who bragged they would take care of the problem by waltzing into the fort and convincing the soldiers they weren’t welcome any longer. Fort Sumter, in the middle of Charleston harbor, was the most defensible place. Anderson secretly moved his entire command of 85 soldiers (along with 45 women and children) to the fort to prevent any confrontations. Begun in 1829, Sumter was still incomplete and had only a few operational cannons for defense. Nevertheless, with walls anywhere from 8 to 12 feet thick, it was the most formidable defensive position in the Western Hemisphere. In the coming days, Fort Sumter for the North would become far more than just a piece of military real estate. Very soon it would become a symbol of national resolve to defend the flag and the Union.