Attack on Fort Sumter

In February 1861 when President Buchanan, Lincoln's predecessor, refused to surrender southern federal forts to the seceding states, southern state troops seized them. The commander of Fort Sumter, Robert Anderson, was asked to surrender immediately. When President Lincoln planned to send supplies to Fort Sumter, he alerted the state in advance, in an attempt to avoid hostilities. However, South Carolina troops repulsed a supply ship trying to reach federal forces based in the fort. The ship was fired and forced to return to New York, its supplies was undelivered. Anderson offered to surrender after he had exhausted his supplies, his offer was rejected. On April 12, the Civil War began with shots fired on the fort. Fort Sumter eventually was surrendered to South Carolina.