My knowledge of the conflict over Fort Sumter and who owned it is that the U.S. Military had a good claim to build a fort there under normal circumstances. To me the fact that Fort Sumter was never officially a U.S. Post, it was still in the hands of the contractors, and never had a garrison, is an issue. The fort was a hallow shell without the proper infrastructure to be called a running post (the term "installation" was not used in the mid-nintenth century). It also was not an independent post, it was one fort, apart of a system of forts on a man made mole built on a sand bar in the middle of Charleston Harbor, dependent on the military establisments on shore for administration, maintenance, supply and general welfare of any garrison that would be officially stationed there. The acts by Anderson, especially chopping down the flag pole at Fort Moultrie, was an act by rogue officer without authority to move his flag, i.e. his headquarters, to an uncommissioned post.

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David Upton