Where the Civil War Began | Fort Sumter 

This park ranger is awesome. Conveys history in such an engaging way.

I'd like to add, the host is excellent as well. The little fact about the British ship running aground the sandbar during the revolution was so sick!

I'm an ACW buff from Brazil and visited FS in 2015. Enjoyed the experience 💪👊.

What an awesome, and knowledgeable park ranger! Great video guys

Excellent presentation by the Park Ranger host. He really knows the history about this Fort and other facts involving the Civil War. Thank you so much for sharing.

I don't comment on videos to often but wanted to here just because of Gary, my friend and I had the honor of visiting Fort Sumter but also getting the chance to speak with Gary while we were there. He is super nice (putting up with our barrage of questions) and very knowledgeable. If you ever get the chance to visit Fort Sumter and you see Him walking around 100% go up and have a chat.

This ranger is outstanding. Thank you

Extremely well done! A real delight to hear from this Park Ranger with just a wealth of information! Congratulations to all involved in this episode.

Been wanting to check out Fort Sumter since the Sesquicentennial. Big thanks to Chris and the team at American Battlefield Trust for getting me out there sooner than later!

Charleston is full of history. l love going there

I lived in Charleston from '71-76, while in the Navy. Got married on Sullivan's Island, lived on James Island and my son was born there. Very interesting history there. I have very fond memories of living there.

Gary is a great ranger, my reenacting unit has worked with him a ton. Great guy!

One of my great, great, great grandfathers was a South Carolinian and was in one of the batteries that fired on Fort Sumter. Really fascinating stuff.

I see that Swampy area. Memories of the swamps of Parris Island back in 5 Oct 73 - 28 Dec 73, when I was in boot camp. Platoon 395, India Co, 3rd RTB.

Canadian here who loves your civil war tours!!

I’m from Charleston myself and I love the history at the Fort . Born there to in SC . 😊

The tour guide was amazing and a fountain of knowledge.

i love that dude on the boat in the background, learning, listening in on what the two of you are saying

I went there in the late 90’s . Charleston is beautiful and I visited the fort Sumter.

If this guy says those cannon's were not in range I believe him. What an excellent Ranger.

No city in America like Charleston. Amazing video!

Been to Ft. Sumter, definitely worth the trip.

I loved visiting there. My only complaint was the short time that they allowed us to stay before having to get back on the boat!

Fort Point, at the entrance of San Francisco Bay, is one of Sumter’s sister forts. It was designed according to the same plans as Sumter, it’s mission to protect gold. It’s worth a visit. It sits directly below the SF end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Excellent work BT. Thanx from an Ausie civil war buff.

This guy knows his stuff!!

A great presentation. Outstanding gentlemen!

What a knowledgeable man and a great story teller! Thanks for bringing us along for the awesome education. 🤗👏👏

Great video great historical insights !! well done

Great Park Ranger! Well done sir!

Visited Ft. Sumter in 2001. It was updated after the war with a Huger big gun, and some other things. The battle scars remain from the 1860's, and our tour guide was just as good as the gentleman that appeared here.

Just a week ago I found this channel looking for modern footage of fort Sumter and fort Monroe. Great to see this manifest lol.

Amazing video. I went there in September 2013, it was so much fun and I learned a lot there. Just being able to walk in the areas where the soldiers were is just so interesting.

Chris was a great video. Love all the history and your guide. Learned a lot. I did not know. Thank you for sharing! 💯👍

the Romans actually used a concrete mixture that when exposed to water, sealed cracks.

This was Amazing!!! I’m a huge fan of civil war history, but I learned so much.!!!! Both did great. Great questions and great explanations!!!

This is great. The park ranger is awesome!! Guy needs a raise and a promotion. Great job! Love this video. So informative and engaging

What a great enlightening video with a most knowledgeable park ranger!

Gosh I’m such a history nerd … I loved every bit of this video. Shoutout to the park ranger, he was very knowledgeable and I enjoyed listening to anything he had to say. Double thumbs up 👍🏻👍🏻

I live in Charleston, fort sumter is a great place to go!

The park ranger is a model of presentation and use of language describing a series of difficult conflicts. Great video.

I moved from the Charleston area in 1991, and I miss it a lot. Thanks for the videos. I remember visiting Ft. Sumter with the rest of the family, as well as Ft. Moultrie (my favorite fort). Charleston has so much history.

Yes!!!!!!!! Fort Sumter!!!!!!

1861,Fort Sumpter. 1945, FDR died. 1961, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. 1981, First Space Shuttle launch. A lot of history packed in the calendar date of 12 April.

Just another great video as always! Love your work guys!

This Park Ranger is an absolute treasure, everything that it means to be a national park ranger. He should be extremely proud of himself and all that he does and knows.

Penn Jillette is awesome! I didn't know he moonlighted as a park ranger at Fort Sumpter! 🤣

My dad was in the Navy. I was born in Charleston. Didn’t come back until I was a senior in high school. Left 2 years later when I joined the Navy. I’ve never been to Ft Sumpter.

Great stuff! I learned a lot from this video. NPS park ranger interpreters are the best!

Fabulous fabulous fabulous.

Very cool place to visit. Went a few years ago and thought it was an interesting experience.

Well produced video, great sound, editing & history. Well done.

We got a LOT of history about the initial bombardment of Ft. Sumter while on tour during the Donor Thank You weekend. GREAT STUFF!

My 4xgreat-grandfather brother on my mother side was in the 17th SCV, Company H. From August 1863 to April 1864, he and his regiment were stationed in and around Charleston. According to the book “A Rising Star of Promise” which is a diary of Lieutenant David J. Logan of 17th SCV, Company F, Lieutenant David J. Logan mentioned that some regiments were stationed at Fort Sumter during this time period, but not mentioned which ones. Does the National Park Service at Fort Sumter have a detailed list of all the Confederate units that served at Fort Sumter during the war? I was wondering if the 17th SCV, Company H at one point was stationed there. In an interesting note, the commander of Fort Sumter from August 1863 to April 1864, was Colonial Stephen Elliott Jr. The 17th SCV would join Colonial Stephen Elliott Jr in the Battle of the Crater, July 30, 1864 at Petersburg, Virginia. My 4xgreat-grandfather brother on my mother side died in that battle and Colonial Stephen Elliott Jr. would die from his wounds from the battle about a year after the war.

Great presentation! I'm a huge history buff, visited Charleston last year, but not Fort Sumter. Been to Gettysburg twice, and plan to go again and all other CW battlefields.

Excellent Park Ranger. Listening to him was a treat.

That was an interesting and informative video. Thanks.

Good laughs watching the reactions of the good ol boy truck driver looking dude eve’s dropping on the conversation 😂 I’m thinking he led the convoy into Charleston & parked the Rubber Duck in the trucker’s only parking lot.

My grandfather 4 was William Maxey. He was station at Fort Sumpter nearly the entire time during the war.

This is great! thank you!

For Sumter is one of the best places to go for history nerds. Ive been once and my favorite part is seeing some of the dud shells still in the brick

Another excellent video!!!! Thank you!!

So fascinating! Thanks for posting this video.

i learned a lot...and i've been there a few times. great interview.

I finally got to see Fort Sumter a few years ago. 😮 The Feds really did reduce it to rubble over the 4 year war ! 🇺🇸 It was like.... "You guys WANT it ?!? OK, but you're not keeping it !" 😅

Outstanding tour!!

I’m not sure if you would do a documentary on Fort Monroe in Hampton VA? It is where Jefferson Davis was imprisoned after the Civil War

The first battle of the Civil War was in January 1861, when Confederates crossed Pensacola Bay and attacked Federal forces occupying Ft. Pickens on Santa Rosa Island. The Confederates were pushed back and retreated to Pensacola.

We were lucky to visit in October 2023.

You have to wonder if someone has seen ghost walking the fort. LOL I know in NC, Ft Macon at Atlantic Beach, Is in a lot better shape than Ft Sumter. But it fell early in the war because the bricks would not hold up to the bombardment. Ft Pulaski is also in good condition along with Ft Monroe, Ft McHenry are all made about the same time, brick forts. The dirt forts like Ft Fisher NC, have been damaged due to coastal storms over the years. But some of it is still there.

Thank you 😊

What made this really awesome is the incredible timing of just how relevant the actions at Ft. Sumter were and still are 163 years later. You can see the passion for American history these rangers/guides have, it felt like Ben franklin was giving us a tour. On a side note the original and modern party of slavery is the Democrat Party, they also fired first and if historical precedent is anything to go by, they will fire first again. FJB!

Thank you 🙏 for sharing this video.

I would consider reactivating that cluster of forts as training forts. While each service has an academy, I think it would be wise to have 2 to 4 for each service spred over the country. Besides a primary one should focus on officers from enlisted, and another for officers from civilian education. As part of reactivation a rebuilding could be done to restore the fort and much of the batteries could serve as dorms. Could also expand the bar to the coast.

I thought the civil war started in Harpers Ferry or maybe even Kansas, but I could be wrong.

Hard to imagine why the south fell for Lincoln’s ploy. Lincoln’s ploy being the fact that not only did they not leave peacefully in the time the south gave them, they were actually reinforced. They let him goad them into a fight. They never should’ve fired.

I worked here as a Park Guide in 2003-04. I have no idea who this guy is but he did a fair job. When i was there the head ranger was the awful Dawn ******* Dennis Birr if youre out there you were fantastic. Sumter is a great site.... an absolute shell of its former self. The best site there (from a historical nerd perspective) is Battery/castle Hinckney. Relics just lying on the ground and shore. Almost all of where Battery Wagner was is gone.... and i can see nothing discernable in that area of Morris Island to indicate anything... The best Civil War site is on the former town of Seccessionville. It's called Battery Lamar and sits at the edge of a residential area and salt marsh... a well preserved earthen fortification with significant comabt occurring are a rarity in SC. Its right outside Charleston and worth the visit. If im correct and remembering... one of the assaulting union regiments suffered one of the highest casualty rates lf the war

Interesting aspect of fate with General Anderson in connection with the assassination of President Lincoln. This has a similar tone of fate with General Grant and President Lincoln's final hours, that being that General Grant had been invited to attend the play along with the president, but the general chose not to accept the invite. It has since been speculated that, even though President Lincoln did not perceive a bodyguard unit for himself as necessary, General Grant was known to (nearly) always travel with a military entourage. Had General Grant attended the play, it is likely that the general's military personnel who accompanied him would have thwarted John Wilkes Booth, (one way or another.)

I live in Fort Sumner NM part of the trail of tears an the Billy the kid

FYI , prior to Ft Sumpter the was the surrender of Gen Twigg in Texas to Texas Confederate forces. The last battle was also fought in Texas at the battle of Palmito Ranch.

Excellent video

Having been there. Man is it something

No offense however, your talking and Identifying all these areas around the harbor, yet no video of the areas being referenced is shown while the interview conversation is taking place. It is rather frustrating as a viewer not familiar with the Charleston Harbor area to not see the scenery described and mentioned as your sailing by it.

.Beautiful Charleston Stories Channel in Year Saturday January 27,2024.😐.

reading "Demon of Unrest" and this was so interesting

Has this guy ever been to the citadel yet? The cadets are the o es who fired the first shots of the civil war when they fired upon the star of the west.

uncle willie purposely saved s. carolina for last !! 1st to secede then received the final trouncing

Hey! I work with those guys at Fort Sumter.

I worked on a dredge, we did the ports channels there. I found countless bullets and small lead balls (possibly musket or cannon shot ammo). Think they are worth anything?

Only be there once, and it's crazy how many cannons are still there over watching the waters, that and the bridges😂,

I'm about 8 minutes and currently and so far the cameraman has shown none of the things that you are talking about on the boat ride there. Why miss that opportunity? I mean we're pretty clear on what the two of you look like within a few seconds into the video.

the Demon of Unrest by ERIK LAWSON

Had a short gig as a Charleston carriage tour guide and was trained to say what everyone believed; that the shots were fired from the battery. Never questioned it. Lol.... Lots of holes in history.

I'm glad to see that Penn Gillette got a job after the magic thing. 🙂

It didn't help that one of the forts first damage was to the cisterns that held the entire water supply of the forts. It's hard to defend without drinking water.

I'm a NY Yankee however I truly believe Lincoln should have evacuated that fort well before any action took place. So do 500,000 soldiers who died too young

Wars first shot was fired by Citadel Cadets from.. MORRIS ISLAND IN JAN 1861, at the steamer Star of the West

Lincoln wasn’t invited into the 1865 flag reraising ceremony at Fort Sumter.

I thought it started at Harper's Ferry...

What!? Notice how this tour guide refers to the Union as “the enemy” within the first 2.5 minutes.