This Day in History: , The Civil War Begins.<br />April 12, 1861.<br />Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay, SC, <br />is attacked by Confederate shore batteries <br />under the command of General P.G.T. Beauregard.<br />After being battered <br />for 34 straight hours, <br />U.S. Major Robert Anderson <br />surrendered the fort.<br />U.S. President Abraham Lincoln <br />called for 75,000 volunteer <br />soldiers two days later.<br />He had been in office <br />for barely more than a month.<br />South Carolina, a slave state, <br />had issued an "Ordinance of Secession" <br />earlier in December, dissolving its ties with the Union.<br />The following four years of war between <br />the North and South would be the bloodiest <br />in American history, resulting in the deaths <br />of more than 620,000 Confederate and Union soldiers
