Families and children evacuate Fort Sumter

Image by Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper/Library of Congress

An 1861 engraving for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper depicts "the stemship [sic] Marion on her way to New York with the wives and children of the soldiers in Fort Sumter" on February 1, 1861.

A few weeks before, on January 19, the commander of Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, requested that South Carolina Governor Pickens allow evacuation of the forty-two women and children from the fort. On January 9 Citadel cadets had fired on the merchant relief vessel, Star of the West, that had approached the Charleston Harbor to resupply the fort.

The Battle of Fort Sumter began on April 12.