It was an Union fort on an island at the entrance to Charleston harbor in South Carolina. After Confederate leaders learned President Lincoln intended to resupply Fort Sumter, Confederate forces attacked the fort on April 12, 1861, initiating the Civil War. The fort was occupied by Major Robert Anderson and about 80 US soldiers. The fort with the American flag became a gated symbol of the nation that Southerners had abandoned, and they wanted federal troops out. The fort was a symbol of federal authority in the seceded states for the Northerners. The decision of war was on Jefferson Davis, who immediately argued for it, eventually ordering confederate trips to take the fort and after 33 hours of fighting and the fort being reduced to rubble, the Confederates had the fort but had already started a war.

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