Fort Sumter
— — a small brick island where one war began.
Not only on a wall.
“A pentagonal masonry fort built on a shoal at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, reached only by boat. The first shots of the American Civil War were fired here on the morning of April 12, 1861. What remains today is a low ring of weathered brick, the casemates of the original walls cut down by years of bombardment and rebuilding. The studio chose Fort Sumter for the quiet of the harbour around a place that loud history began in. from the studio
Fort Sumter, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Fort Sumter is a sea fort on a man-made island at the mouth of Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Construction began in 1829 on a shoal of granite imported from New England, as part of the Third System of American coastal fortifications after the War of 1812. The fort was still unfinished when South Carolina seceded in December 1860. It is now part of Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, administered by the National Park Service since 1948.
The original fort was pentagonal, with walls of brick faced with stone, rising about fifty feet above low water and designed to mount three tiers of guns. Confederate batteries opened fire on April 12, 1861; the Union garrison under Major Robert Anderson surrendered after a 34-hour bombardment. Repeated shelling during the long Union siege of 1863 to 1865 reduced the walls to a low ring of rubble, and the postwar rebuild left the fort lower than its original profile. The black-iron Battery Huger casemate added in 1899 still sits atop the older brick.
Fort Sumter is reachable only by boat. The National Park Service contracts with Fort Sumter Tours for the official ferry, which departs from Liberty Square at the foot of Calhoun Street in downtown Charleston and from Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant. The round trip runs about two hours and twenty minutes, with roughly an hour on the island. A small museum on the fort houses the original Fort Sumter garrison flag. The mainland visitor centres at Liberty Square and Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island add context before or after the crossing.