It’s December 20th, 1860, and South Carolina has voted to secede.

The wise major of the U.S. Army, caught with a small group of troops in seceding South Carolina, makes the judicious move to Fort Sumter.

This was wise for two reasons:

1. It was a key location that they saw as a way to supply the new Confederate army with weapons. If the Union got it, it would be a point of leverage over the Confederacy.

2. Fort Sumter was much more established and secure than the previous location, the vulnerable Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island.

Three months later, on March 4, 1861, the U.S. Army has been barricaded in the fort, and now the new president, Lincoln, takes power.

He tells the governor of South Carolina he’s going to send supplies to the troops in crisis.

The governor requests that the troops evacuate.

They do not.

On April 12th, the Confederates bomb as if there is no tomorrow, and 34 hours later—after I don’t know how many pounds of dynamite—the Union agrees to leave.

Incredibly, no one died.

But this show of arms was a major tipping point.

Lincoln’s immediate call for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion resulted in an additional four Southern states also declaring their secession and joining the Confederacy.