Name: ______Date: ______Period: ____
Directions: Part I -Mark-up the reading then answer the questions that follow. For every paragraph, add at least one thought: a question, comment, prediction, reflection, or connection.
The Fall of Fort Sumter
On April 12, 1861, Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, and the Civil War began. This bloody, four-year conflict tore the nation apart and changed the course of American history.
Crisis at Fort Sumter
The crisis at Fort Sumter actually began about a month earlier, on March 5. On that day, President Abraham Lincoln’s first full day in office, he received a desperate message from the commander of Fort Sumter,Robert Anderson. Confederate leaders had demanded that he surrender the fort or face an attack. The fort’s supplies were running low, and Anderson needed help.
Confederate troops had seized many forts, arsenals, and other federal government property throughout the states that had seceded. Fort Sumter was one of the few such places still in Union hands. It had become a target of the Confederate revolt. If President Lincoln turned over the fort, his surrender might reassure southerners that the North did not want war. On the other hand, it would also anger many people in the North who did not want to treat the Confederacy as if it were a separate, legitimate nation.
Lincoln made a clever decision. He would not surrender Fort Sumter. Instead, he told the Confederates that he would send only food and other nonmilitary supplies to the fort to feed the soldiers trapped there. Now Confederate president Jefferson Davis faced a difficult decision. If he allowed the fort to be resupplied, it could hold out indefinitely and would continue to be a symbol of federal authority in the South. If he attacked the fort, however, war would begin.
The attack on Fort Sumter
Davis decided to act before the supplies arrived. “You will at once demand [the fort’s] evacuation,” he ordered the Confederate commander in Charleston. “If this is refused, proceed, in such manner as you may determine, to reduce[destroy] it.”
In the early morning of April 12, Confederate artillery, or large mounted guns, opened fire on the fort. The fort’s defenses were no match for these massive guns, and it surrendered the next day. On April 14 the U.S. flag flying over the fort was replaced with a southern flag.
Directions Part II -Checklist for your mark up: list the number of mark ups you have for the following categories. If you don’t have at least one for each category, go back and add one. Write your best comment down for each category, then share with a partner and write down their best comment.
______Questions
Pick your best question and write it here:
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Partner’s best question:
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______Comments
Pick you best comment and write it here:
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Partner’s best comment:
______
______Connections
Pick your best connection and write it here:
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Partner’s best connection:
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______Predictions
Pick your best prediction and write it here:
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Partner’s best prediction:
______
Directions Part III – With your partner answer the following review questions:
1). What was the dispute over Fort Sumpter?
2). Who was Robert Anderson?
3). Why did Lincoln only send food and supplies to the fort?
4). What advantages did the Confederates have over the soldiers at the fort?
5). How did the fall of Fort Sumter lead to war?