Four of the bloodiest years in American history began when
Confederate shore batteries under Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard
opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s
Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861.

On April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort and
two days later, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation
calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern
“insurrection.”

Four years after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the
Confederacy was defeated at the total cost of 620,000 Union
and Confederate soldiers dead.

Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard
(May 28, 1818 – February 20, 1893)

Robert Houstoun Anderson
(October 1, 1835 – February 8, 1888)

Abraham Lincoln
(February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)