Fort Sumter 1861
Its five-foot-thick brick walls towered approximately 50 feet above low water to command the main ship channel. Four sides, 170 to 190 feet long, were designed for three tiers of guns; the gorge, mainly officers' quarters, mounted guns only on the third tier. Enlisted men's barracks paralleled the gunrooms on the two flanks. A sally port pierced the center of the gorge, opening onto a wharf. The fort was designed for an armament of 135 guns and a garrison of 650 men. But by December 1860 Fort Sumter was 90 percent completed, standing empty, with only 15 cannon mounted and ready.