After the unsuccessful boat assault , the bombardment recommenced and proceeded with the varying degree of intensity , doing more damage to Fort Sumter until the end of the war . The garrison continued to suffer casualties . The Confederates continued to salvage guns and other material from the ruins and harassed the Union batteries on Morris Island with sharpshooters . The Confederates mounted four columbiads , one columbiad rifled , and two rifled 42-pounders , in the left face , bottom tier casemates . The last Confederate commander , Major Thomas A. Huguenin , a graduate from The Citadel , The Military College of South Carolina , never surrendered Fort Sumter , but General William Tecumseh Sherman 's advance through South Carolina finally forced the Confederates to evacuate Charleston on February 17 , 1865 , and abandon Fort Sumter . The Federal government formally took possession of Fort Sumter on February 22 , 1865 . On April 14 , 1865 , mere hours before President Lincoln 's assassination , Anderson ( now a major general ) returned to Sumter with the flag he had been forced to lower after the surrender four years earlier , and raised it in triumph over the ruined fort
President Lincoln 's assassination
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Fort Sumter