It's interesting to visit Fort Sumter today. Before you travel over to the island you get the slick brochure that shows what it looked like pre-civil war. Unfortunately what remains today is roughly half (or less) of the original in terms of height, and the only reason that exists is because the rubble from the bombardments basically buried the walls. Here you see the sandbags and rubble, underneath, the remaining ruins of a once great fort. It was a very interesting visit, but I was disappointed to see that a large concrete lookout bunker was installed in the center of the fort during WW I , further detracting from Fort Sumter's Civil War feel.