This morning at 4:30 150 years ago, Lieutenant Henry S. Farley fired the first shot in the War Between the States when he let loose a single 10-inch mortar round at Fort Sumter.
According to David Detzer’s book, Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War (New York: Harcourt, 2001. ISBN 0-15-100641-5), Captain George S. James gave the option of firing the first shot to Roger Pryor. Pryor, a noted Virginia secessionist, declined saying, “I could not fire the first gun of the war.”
The first shot detonated over Fort Sumter serving as a signal to begin the general bombardment from the big guns located at Fort Johnson, Fort Moultrie, Cummings Point, as well as a floating battery in the harbor.
Under the orders of Confederate Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard, the batteries at all of the gun emplacements surrounding Fort Sumter were to fire at two-minute intervals. Beauregard wanted to conserve ammunition and estimated he had enough to last for two days.
In the nearby town of Charleston, the sounds of the bombardment awakened the residents. Many came out of their homes to watch artillery shells arcing over the harbor into Fort Sumter in the predawn darkness. The shells exploded above and within the fort.
The commander inside Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, withheld fire. His men would muster and go to breakfast as normal before returning fire at first light. Unfortunately, Anderson and his men were already low on both food and ammunition.
At 1 p.m. the next day, Fort Sumter’s flagpole fell. Throughout the afternoon and into the following day, April 14, confusion reigned over whether the Confederates would allow the Union troops to evacuate the fort or force them into surrender.
During the two and one half days of the bombardment, not one soldier on either side lost his life during the fighting. However, after the surrender and as a condition of the surrender at Major Anderson’s request, there was to be a 100-gun salute to the Union flag. During this event, a spark exploded a pile of cartridges near one of the guns instantly killing Private Daniel Hough. The blast seriously wounded others, including Private Edward Gallway, who would later die at a hospital in Charleston. Hough and Gallway would become the first official casualties of a very long and bloody war.
By the end of the war, some 110,000 Union soldiers and 94,000 Confederates would die in battle. Another 250,000 and 164,000 respectively would die because of disease and other causes.
In total, experts estimate somewhere between 618,000 and 700,000 Americans died during the War Between the States.
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© 2011 J. Clark
Apr 14, 1865 he [Major Anderson] returned to the fort and raised that same flag that was lowered at surrender. That evening Abraham Lincoln died.
Reminds me of a famous quote by an old rebel. “We coulda whupped them yankees with cornstalks. The problem was, they wouldn’t fight with cornstalks.”