Fort Sumter Today
As is clear by comparing the painting on pages [8]-9 with the photograph, Fort Sumter today bears only a superficial resemblance to its original appearance. The multi-tiered work of 1861 was reduced largely to rubble during the Civil War, and Battery Huger, built across the parade ground at the time of the Spanish-American War, dominates the site.
The following labels identify the main features of the present fort. Each is keyed by number to the photograph.
1/Left Face Casemate Ruins 2/Left Flank Casemates 3/Right Face 4/Right Flank 5/Right Gorge Angle 6/Sally Port 7/Parade Ground 8/Union Garrison Monument 9/Powder Magazine 10/Officers’ Quarters Ruins 11/Enlisted Men’s Barracks Ruins 12/Esplanade 13/Granite Wharf Remains 14/12-Pounder Mountain Howitzer 15/Battery Huger 16/Museum
Left Face
During the 1863-65 siege of Charleston, reverse fire from Union gunners on Morris Island crossed the parade and struck the interior of the left face, destroying the arched brick casemates. Holes caused by these shots, as well as several projectiles themselves, are still visible in the wall. Outside the casemate ruins are two 15-inch smoothbore Rodman guns, an 8-inch Columbiad, and a 10-inch mortar.
Right Face
Guns mounted on the lower tier of this face dueled with Fort Moultrie in the initial Confederate attack of 1861. Since the angle of the face allowed it to escape the destructive fire from Federal batteries on Morris Island, its outer wall still stood almost at full height in February 1865. After the destructive bombardments of August 1863, the Confederate garrison mounted three guns in the first-tier casemates just above the right shoulder angle. Referred to as the “Palmetto Battery,” because of the protective log cover raised on the exterior, this three-gun position was the sole offensive armament of the fort for several months. All the lower-tier casemates were reclaimed in the 1870s and armed with 100-pounder Parrott rifled cannon. These guns, rusted and worn, were the same type of cannon (and possibly the identical pieces) used by the Federals on Morris Island to bombard Fort Sumter from 1863 to 1865. They were buried with the casemates after Battery Huger was constructed. When the parade ground was excavated in 1959 these casemates were opened and 11 of these Parrott guns were uncovered. They are now displayed in this face.
