--- title: Civil War Photography: See the Aftermath at Fort Sumter description: The Civil War began 155 years ago, when Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter. After the bombardment, the photographers arrived. canonical: https://time.com/4281331/fort-sumter-photos/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-12T15:00:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:10.504Z article:section: History og:title: Civil War Photography: See the Aftermath at Fort Sumter og:description: The Civil War began 155 years ago, when Confederate forces opened fire og:url: https://time.com/4281331/fort-sumter-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4ef3c5d7149e47c/69888da80b72e3156a6e8ce4/160404-fort-sumter-loc-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Civil War Stereograph og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Civil War Photography: See the Aftermath at Fort Sumter twitter:description: The Civil War began 155 years ago, when Confederate forces opened fire twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4ef3c5d7149e47c/69888da80b72e3156a6e8ce4/160404-fort-sumter-loc-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See Early Photos of the Aftermath From the Attack on Fort Sumter  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 12, 2016 3:00 PM UTC  Sumter after the bombardment. Stereograph from The Robin G. Stanford Collection. Sumter after the bombardment. Stereograph from The Robin G. Stanford Collection.Library of Congress  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 12, 2016 3:00 PM UTC When South Carolina seceded from the Union in December of 1860, Union forces in the area took refuge in Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor. But after being holed up for awhile, the Union troops started running out supplies. Ready to demand their surrender, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861—exactly 155 years ago. The shots touched off a battle that would last for days and a war that would last for years, threatening the very future of the United States. Though the attack claimed no soldiers’ lives in the time before the Union forces surrendered Fort Sumter, it would live in history as the battle that formally began the Civil War. And, as these photographs show, it left its physical mark on the building. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) The Civil War is [famous](http://www.civilwar.org/photos/3d-photography-special/photography-and-the-civil-war.html) for its relationship with photography, falling at a time of rapid advancement in camera technology. Though the film we might rec0gnize today had yet to be invented, photographers were experimenting with gadgets like the stereograph—an early 3D-photo technology, seen in the images above, where two photos from slightly different angles are viewed through a device that makes the human eye see them as one deep image. They were also experimenting with the possible uses of photography for spreading the word about what was going on in the nation. As the Civil War raged on, photographs communicated its horrors to Americans far from the battle fields, in a way that the art of previous wars had not made possible. **_Read TIME’s 2011 cover story on the 150th anniversary of the Fort Sumter attack, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Why We’re Still Fighting the Civil War](http://time.com/vault/issue/2011-04-18/page/1/)  Sumter after the bombardment. Stereograph from The Robin G. Stanford Collection. Library of Congress  Sumter after bombardment showing damage to the southwest corner of the fort, including an embrasure at left. Stereograph from The Robin G. Stanford Collection. Library of Congress  Fort Sumter after the bombardment. Stereograph shows ruins of artillery among the rocks on the exterior of Fort Sumter. From the Civil War Photograph Collection. Library of Congress  Sumter after bombardment. Stereograph from The Robin G. Stanford Collection. Library of Congress  Sumter after bombardment, flag staff shot away. Stereograph from The Robin G. Stanford Collection. Library of Congress  Fort Sumter, stereograph shows a group of men, possibly including Governor Francis Pickens and state Senator Wade Hampton, inspecting a 10 inch Columbiad inside of Fort Sumter after the bombardment. From The Robin G. Stanford Collection. Library of Congress ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4281331/fort-sumter-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4281331/fort-sumter-photos/"},"headline":"See Early Photos of the Aftermath From the Attack on Fort Sumter","datePublished":"2016-04-12T15:00:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:10.504Z","description":"The battle began the Civil War 155 years ago. 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