When South Carolina seceded in December 1860, Major Robert Anderson, a pro-slavery, former slave owner from Kentucky, remained loyal to the Union. He was the commanding officer of United States Army forces in Charleston, South Carolinathe last remaining important Union post in the Deep South. Acting upon orders from the War Department to hold and defend the U.S. forts, he moved his small garrison from Fort Moultrie, which was indefensible, to the more modern, more defensible, Fort Sumter in the middle of Charleston Harbor. South Carolina leaders cried betrayal, while the North celebrated with enormous excitement at this show of defiance against secessionism. In February 1861 the Confederate States of America were formed and took charge. Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, ordered the fort be captured. The artillery attack was commanded by Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, who had been Anderson's student at West Point. The attack began April 12, 1861, and continued until Anderson, badly outnumbered and outgunned, surrendered the fort on April 14. The battle began the American Civil War, as an overwhelming demand for war swept both the North and South, with only Kentucky attempting to remain neutral.