Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1911 — Today is The Semi-Centennial Of First Shot In Civil War. [ARTICLE]

Today is The Semi-Centennial Of First Shot In Civil War.

Today, Wednesday, April 12, marks the semi-centennial of the bombardment of Fort Sumpter and the first real move in the war of the Rebellion which cost eight btUion dollars and the sacrifice of five hundred thousand lives. Fort Sumpter, unfinished and unmanned, stood on a small shoal in Charleston harbor. When South Carolina seceded, Major Robert Anderson, in command at Fort Moultrie, ordered the guns spiked and wjth his force of ,75 men rowed to Sumpter under cover of darkness on the night of Dec. 26, 1860. Gov. Pickens, of South Carolina, unsuccessfully demanded Anderson's return to Moultrie, April 9, 1861, Gen. Beauregard commanded Anderson to surrender, and was refused. April 12, at 3 a. m., a messenger rowed out to Sumpter and presented Beauregard’s ultimatum to evacuate or a bombardment would commence within an hour. 'Again came Anderson’s refusal, and promptly at 4:30 the firing began, and continued 36 hours, when the garrison capitulated and were allowed the honors of warfare. During the engagement not a man was killed, although one soldier lost his life through the explosion of a cannon. A Virginian, Edmund Ruffin, aged 67 years, fired the first shot at Sumpter. He committed suicide after Lee surrendered. Sumpter remained in the hands of the Confederates until February, 1865, when Sherman’s approach caused the Rebels to desert Charleston.