Civil Beginnings
It was at 4:30 a.m. on this day in 1861 that the first engagement of the American Civil War broke out at Fort Sumter. A sixty-seven-year-old secessionist and farm-paper editor named Edmund Ruffin volunteered to fire the first shot. He later said, “Of course, I was highly gratified by the compliment and delighted to perform the service.”
… fort was ultimately hit by 3,341 shells…
People in Charleston watched from rooftops as Fort Sumter was hit with a barrage of cannon fire for the rest of the day and into the next. The fort was ultimately hit by 3,341 shells, but amazingly none of the Union soldiers were killed or injured in the shelling. The only casualty of the engagement came during the ceremonial fifty-gun salute of surrender, when some gunpowder exploded, killing a Union soldier named Daniel Hough.
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