Retracing the water battles of the Civil War
– By Chris Landers
Perhaps one of the best ways to see some of the most
important sites of the Civil War may be from the deck of your
boat, where your imagination can take you back in time
his year marks the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, and visitors and
reenactors are gathering at historical sites to commemorate important events in the
conflict that so dramatically shaped our young nation. Extraordinary battlefields
such as Gettysburg draw most of the attention, but some of the most important and
moving sites may be best seen and experienced from the water. The naval battles
of the Civil War, fought between Union blockade forces and Confederate navies, had a lasting
impact on the way wars are fought, and an immediate effect on the lives of those caught up in
the conflict. Here are a few of the major events of the Civil War — as seen from the water. If
you visit them this summer, aboard your boat with your family, it’s a great time to imagine and
reflect upon what happened there, only a few generations ago, in what historians have called
“The War Between Brothers.”
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Mortars aimed at Fort Sumter.
Charleston, South Carolina
In December 1860, South Carolina was
the first state to vote to secede from the Union,
and a month later turned away a Union ship
trying to resupply the Federal forces stationed
at Fort Sumter, where Major Robert Anderson
had taken his men after departing the mainland. The Union flag flying over the island fortress was a constant symbol of Federal oppression to Charleston’s rebels, and in April 1861,
they decided to do something about it.
A signal shot from nearby Fort Jackson
began the bombardment of Fort Sumter on
April 12, and it ended 34 hours later with a
Union surrender. As Abner Doubleday, then
a captain stationed at Sumter but later more
famous for his association with baseball, wrote
in his memoir of the event: “The first contest
of the war was over, and had ended as a sub-
stantial victory for the Secessionists. ... We had
permitted ourselves to be surrounded with a
ring of fire, from which there was no escape.”
The only human casualty from the Battle
of Fort Sumter was a Union gunner killed when
his gun exploded during a salute as the fort
was abandoned, but Sumter became a rallying
symbol for both sides after the battle. Major
Robert Anderson, the Union commander of
the Sumter forces, took down the Union flag
