On April 13, 1861, the US Army installation known as Fort Sumter located at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, surrendered to the rebellious forces of the fledgling Confederate States of America after a bombardment. The next day, the fort was surrendered to the Confederates with no men killed on either side. While the armed forces of the United States have been overwhelmingly successful over the course of many wars and conflicts, there have been those inevitable times with failure has resulted in the humiliating surrender of American military personnel and/or installations or ships. Today we address some of the most humiliating such incidents. Feel free to nominate other such incidents that we could have included on our list. (There is no significance to the order in which the incidents are listed.)
Digging Deeper
1. Fort Sumter, 1861.
Fort Sumter was built in response to the War of 1812 as part of the effort to protect the American coast against foreign invaders. It was not really completed when South Carolina became the first state to secede in 1860, although the fort was fairly imposing at it was. The garrison of 85 Union soldiers were faced by about 600 Confederates, and the prospect of constant bombardment with no way of reinforcing the fort or replying in a meaningful way. The supplies of food were also dwindling. An attempt to resupply the fort by an unarmed merchant ship was stopped by Confederate shore batteries. After a day of bombardment, Major Robert Anderson saw no reason to get his men killed with no hope of victory and surrendered his fort. The Battle of Fort Sumter is usually regarded as the first battle of the American Civil War, an inauspicious beginning for the Union.
