Mexico weekly ledger., 1882-10-12
FORT AND FLEET.
THE FIRST GUN OF THE WAR.
Who Fired 1t, and Where From.-How
Fort Sumpter was B0mbarded
and Surrendered.
Daylight is breaking over Charles

Daylight is breaking over Charles
ton.
1t is the morning of the 18th of
April, 1861-the most momentous
morning in the history of America.
Fifteen thousand citizens ofCharles-
ton have crowded down to the es-
planade, and every man has his face
turned towards the sea. To the
right, as they look down the harbor,
is Morris Island; to the left Sulli-
vans, and midway between is Fort
Sumpter, grim and silent and not
even showing its flag.
The great crowd trembles with ex-
element and speaks in whispers. A
bloody civil war is about to open.
The young men are ready to hurrah
over the prospect, but the older ones
look grave, as they realize what war
means.
Now the gray mist creeps up from
the waters of the harbor and floats
away, and the eastern horizon be-
comes tinged with red. At the head
of Sullivan's Island is the floating
iron battery, and it is to fire the first
gun. Its echoes will awaken the
huge iron monsters asleep in Forts
Moultrie and Johnson-at Cummings
Point--at Point Pleasant, and other
localities. There is a flag over each
Confederate fort and battery, and
with a good glass you can see men on
the ramparts.
From December to April the Con-
federates have been busy trying to
get possession of the grim and silent
fort rising out of the waters of the
harbor. All demands for surrender
have been refused, and the only 9th
er way is to be tried. Day by day
batteries and forts have been erected,
almost within rifle shot of Sumpter's
walls, and Maj. Anderson has been
powerless. His orders are to hole
the fort, and he has no authority tt
fire a gun until it becomes al act Of
self-defense. He has seen the forts
rise-the great guns landed and
mounted-the volunteers march in
the ammunition brought down from
Charleston, and yet Federal policy
kept his guns silent.
THE BELL STRIKES.
Silence now! In the floating Bat
terry is an old, gray-haired man-Ed
mund Ruffin. He has sought thu
privilege Of firing the first gun of thu
war. The lanyard he holds in hi
hand is the rope which will ring thu
bell of destiny. When that bel
strikes a mighty republic will fall il
fragments, and it will take the BLOOD
of a hundred battles to cement it.
s'Boom!"
The bell has struck. At the wore
the old man has pulled the lanyard
and a solid shot whirrs across tn
water and strikes the brick wall o
Fort Sumpter with a heavy thud. Fo
a long minute no m speaks. TIL
echoes of that gun are fraught wit
mighty issues-the whirr of that sho
means death to a quarter of a milliol
soldiers. AS the thunder rolls u
and down the harbor and dies ava
twenty thousand people cheer. TIL
war has began. There can be IL
backward step now. Old and youn
cheer and shout and shake hands an
feel a glad relief.
THE ATTACK.
The Confederates had been a
ready for a week. Every one of tn
fifty guns and mortars in position ha
been trained with mathematical pre-
cision to reach certain points wit
their fire. The order was to fire fror
left to right, beginning with the float
ing battery, and the gun which Ed
mund Ruffin fired was soon answere
by the next, and the fire swept clea
around the circle until it came bac
to the same gun. The projectile
used were solid shot, shell and bombs
and every gun had the fort with
easy range. At the time the frs
gun was fired a reporter Of th
Charleston Mercury-now on tn
staff of the News-wasE standing d
rectly behind Mr.. Ruffin, and to whol
1 am indebted for many particulars {
that attack never before published
He was one of tile first in the fol
after the surrender, and what he sa
and made note of can be relied O
even when it clashes with the trad
tons of the historian. Taking up tt
firing in the order named, each gu
was Don busy at work, and the tn
menduous cannonade shook Charles
ton from center to circumference
One standing or tire esplaaade, thre
miles away, felt the ground tremb
under his feet as if an earthquake W.
struggling to reach the surfac
There was no excitement among Il
Confederates after the first five mil
utes. The guns were loaded al
fired with GOODNESS and regularit,
and officers sought positions fro
which they could note with their gla
ses the work of every shot.
In THE FORT.
Maj. Anderson was not only e
pecting the attack, but was ready f
it. With the echoes of the first g,