Trivia: Sumter's Enlistment Bonus

[ForeverFree]

Here's some trivia about Ft Sumter.

The Fort is named after Thomas Sumter. This is info about him in wiki:

Thomas Sumter (August 14, 1734 – June 1, 1832) nicknamed the Carolina Gamecock, was a hero of the American Revolution and went on to become a longtime member of the Congress of the United States.

In February 1776, he was elected Lieutenant Colonel of the Second Regiment of the South Carolina Line of which he was later appointed Colonel. He subsequently was appointed Brigadier General of the South Carolina militia, a post he held until the end of the war. He participated in several battles in the early months of the war, including the campaign to prevent an invasion of Georgia. Perhaps his greatest military achievement was his partisan campaigning that contributed to the decision by Lord Cornwallis to leave the Carolinas for Virginia, where Cornwallis met his fate at Yorktown in October 1781.

He acquired the nickname, "The Carolina Gamecock" during the American Revolution for his fierce fighting tactics, regardless of his size. A British General commented that Sumter "fought like a gamecock", and Cornwallis paid him the finest tribute when he described the Gamecock as his greatest plague.

After the Revolution, Sumter served as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1789 to March 4, 1793 and from March 4, 1797 to December 15, 1801 when he was elected a U. S. Senator to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Senator Charles Pinckney. Sumter served in the Senate until his retirement on December 16, 1810.

The town of Sumter, South Carolina, wherein his memorial is located, and Sumter County, South Carolina were named for him. The town of Sumter is even dubbed "The Gamecock City" after his nickname. "Gamecock" is one of the several traditional nicknames for a native of South Carolina.

The University of South Carolina's official nickname is the "Fighting Gamecocks," though since 1903 the teams have been simply known as the "Gamecocks."

In addition, Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor was named for Sumter after the War of 1812. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.

In addition to the above, Sumter was responsible for a very... interesting... enlistment bonus policy in South Carolina. You can red about that here; on page 71 of the reference, go to the paragraph that begins "Although neither South Carolina nor Georgia permitted..."