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WHO FIRED THAT FIRST SHOT TO START THE WAR ?
A 10-inch mortar belches flame, smoke -- and a round shell that arches across the water leaving a fiery train from its
fuse. It explodes over Fort Sumter, briefly illuminating the brick fortification in the darkness. The time is 4:30 a.m. The date, April 12, 1861. The shell has launched four years of war -- a 100-year
controversy over who fired it.
Chief contenders for the honor were three men, a captain, a lieutenant and a civilian. The civilian was Edmund Ruffin of Virginia. His name was preceded so often in contemporary reports by the
word "venerable" that the word almost has become a part of it. Through the years, Ruffin's name has kept cropping up as that of the man who pulled the lanyard, but he is one who may definitely be
eliminated. The first shot was fired from Fort Johnson. Ruffin was at Cummings Point, the last, not the first location to go into action. That leaves the captain, George S. James, and the lieutenant,
Henry S. Farley. Both were at Fort Johnson. James was in overall charge of the two mortar batteries as well as other troops at the fort and Farley in command of the East, or Beach, Mortar Battery
which fired the first shot.
Col. Alfred Roman's book on Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard's military operations quotes the general; "...From Ft. Johnson's mortar battery at 4:30 a.m. issued the first shell of the war. It was fired,
not by Mr. Ruffin of Virginia as has been erroneously supposed, but by Capt. George S. James of South Carolina to whom Lt. Stephen D. Lee issued the order..." Unfortunately, Gen. Beauregard, who
was in command of Confederate troops in the Charleston area, was not present at the firing of the first shot. He wrote, presumable, from official reports. Did he mean that James actually pulled
the lanyard, or that James' battery fired on Lee's orders? Some years later, Lee backed up Roman's quotation of Beauregard, or perhaps the quotation backs up Lee since he, no doubt, was one of Beauregard's
sources for a report on the firing.
At any rate, in the 1896 issue of the Southern Historical Society Papers is an article with this statement by Lee;"...Capt. James offered the honor of firing the first shot to Roger A. Pryor of
Virginia. He declined saying he could not fire the first gun. Another officer then offered to take Pryor's place. James replied; 'No, I will fire it myself,' and he did fire it..."
Another attempt to identify the man who pulled the lanyard was made by Dr. Robert Lebby who also witnessed the firing, but from a distance too far to determine who fired the weapon. Dr. Lebby gathered
as much material as possible and his article ran in the News and Courier of 1906 and the S.C. Historical and Genealogical Magazine of July 1911. He quoted an eyewitness, Dr. W. H. Prioleau, surgeon
at Fort Johnson who was present at the East Battery when the first shot was fired. Prioleau stated that he did not know who actually pulled the lanyard, but he recalled the weapon was sighted by
Farley and James gave the order to fire.
by Arthur M. Wilcox & Warren Ripley
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Presumable Dr. Lebby commented, James wouldn't have given the order to himself. Dr. Lebby also quoted a letter from Farley written
many years after the war; "...That the circumstances attending firing of the first gun at Sumter are quite fresh in my memory. Capt. James stood on my right with his watch in his hand and gave me
the order to fire. I pulled the lanyard, having already carefully inserted a friction tube, and discharged a 13 inch mortar shell..." (Farley's memory was in error here. The first shot was from
a 10-inch mortar. The South had no 13-inch mortars at Charleston.) If Farley's memory tricked him as to the caliber of the weapon, did it also play him false in other parts of his statement? It's
a puzzling question and one which no one has been able to solve conclusively. However, it seems fairly certain that the initial shot was fired by either James or Farley -- and from there on you
can take your pick with the odds about even."
Links to 4,000+ References to S.C. Civil War
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from "THE CIVIL WAR"
by Robert Paul Jordan for
Nat. Geographic Soc.
"Plotting his next move, Grant studies a map at his Cold Harbor headquarters, his dedicated Chief of Staff, John A. Rawlins seated beside him. In the gravest mistake of his military career,
Grant had ordered an assault at Cold Harbor on June 3rd against impregnable Rebel trenches, costing the Union 7,000 men in about half an hour. Infantry men faced deadly fire. Forsaking such
bludgeoning tactics, Grant swung towards Petersburg." |
from "THE CIVIL WAR"
by Robert Paul Jordan for
Nat. Geographic Soc.
"With his son, Maj.Gen. G.W.C.Lee (left) and his aide, Col. Walter Taylor, Lee reluctantly poses for a Brady portrait in Richmond eight days after surrender. Drawn faces and brooding eyes speak
the defeated hero's anguish. A month later, Grant's protection saved Lee from arrest and trial for treason." |
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