The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-05-11
FIRST GUN OF The WAR
II Was Not the Famous Shot Heard
Round the World.
How the Star OF the West Was
Driven From Fort Sumter and
How the Secret OF Her Com
Ing Leaked Out.

In the smoking room OF the Aston
house the other evening two grizzled
Grand Army men sat chatting with q
middled-aged Virginian. Their talk
drifted TO the stirring events of the spring
Of 1861, in which all three had taken part,
says the New York Sun. The virginian
mentioned that, mt the time, he was serv-
ing under Bcauregard at Charleston.
"By the way" broke in the elder of the
two union veterans, 'to-morrow will be
the anniversary of the firing of the first
gun of h war. Did you happen to see
the fash of that famous shot,"
"Ycs," replied the ex-ret el, ~ was a
youngster then, but l remember the scene
as distinctly as il ii were yesterday. On
the night of April 10, % years ago ! was
with the battalion of artillerists who
slept e~xpectantly behind the low sand
Fort Sumter. We were aroused
about two hours before daylight
next morning to take part i'm the
bombardment for which we had been get
ting ready during many ear weeks.
We had been told that il would begin at 3
o'clock in the morning u that the signal
would be the firing Of a shell from n NOR
tar battery upon James Island, on the
south side of the harbor, midway between
our position and the city. When the roar
came We were all In our places peering
a~nxiously and impatiently across the
| placid and starlit waters, now at the dim
outlines of the fort, now i'm the direction
of the wooded shore of James Island,
whence the signal shot was to ome lido
not know what caused the delay, but we
IA to wait fully an hour, every minute of
which seemed to be an age, before my
sound broke the stiffness of the night, ex-
cept the monotonous roll of the surf upon
thu hnnnh bnfnrn ne a lnAf about A
o'clock, when the first signs Of the coming
dawn could be discerned in the eastern
sky, and when most of US had come to the
conclusion that the performance was
to be indefinitely postponed, we We're
suddenly relieved by the welcome flash
of the mortar and the dull boom which
served as the long roll for the chain of
batteries which encircled the doomed
fort. Thousands of eyes followed the
lighted fuse which marked the curved
flight of that first shell until il burst i'm a
little round cloud of pearl-gray smoke
high above the parapet upon which Major
Anderson u his men were silent watch
ers. Then. in a moment, the quiet of the
scene was at an end. The whole harbor
seemed suddenly to wake up. Battery
after battery opened fire. Rifled siege
cannon were n novelty at that time, and
we had none; but tine range was Shorthand
shells, round shot and rodhot shot were
rained upon the fort with n rapidity which
in few hours rendered the whole interior,
excepting the bomb-proof easements, a
moss of burning ruins. The war had in
deed begun ut last.
"But that mortar shell from James
Island was not what you just now called
| il, the first u of the war; though il il
surprising how many well-informed peo-
| pie, both North and South, believe that il
was. Perhaps Whittier's verse,
The shot heard round the world,
$500, .,. hI,,I tho p,ra,l 80 Chi.
strange mistake, but every one who has
carefully read about the opening of the
war ought To remember that the first gun
was, in fact, fired some time before the
bombardment of Fort SUMTER
Seeing that b his Grand Army friends
were interested as well as a little puzzled
by his assertion, the yirginian continued:
"The first gun of the war was, Of course,
the shot which drove back the steamer
| Star of the West when she tried TO enter
Charleston harbor with supplies for he
little garrison of regulars shut up i'm Fort
| Sumter. But, as far as | } know, the true
story of how that o came to be fired
has never been told. l held n position at
the time which gave me an inside view OF
what was going on, and l well remember
the citation Of General Ripley, who was i'm
immediate command of our works In the
harbor, at the lucky circumstance which
enabled us To prevent relief from reach
ing Major Anderson and his men.
at was long before the completion of
the batteries which were to batter down
Fort Sumter with their concentrate fire,
tina n detachment of pupils of the state
military academy Of South Carolina, us
ually known as the citadel cadets, were
| sent to man a small redoubt on Morris
Island close to the beach and facing The
harbor entrance. This work had e
hastily thrown up so as to command the
main ship canal, and the cadets, while
| InhnrinD tn SfrnnUfDAn the noSifiOn. got
some good lessons i'm practical military
engineering. | am not sure that this was
not the main object for which they were
sent TO Morris Island. To them. at all
events, the outing was O welcome kind OF
picnic with a patriotic flavor, for though
they were longing for a real scrimmage
Of some sort, there seemed to be no
immediate prospect that their en-.
thusiasm in that direction would
be gratified. Their battery was any
thing but n formidable one either i'm its
offensive or defensive features; but most
people on both sides of Mason and
Dixon's line were still clinRing To the be.
lief that something would yet turn up to
avert the clash OF arms, n nobody
thought that there was any special reason
for haste in putting the finishing touches
to the little sand fort.
There had. so far, been no serious in
corruption Of travel or of mail and tele-
graphic communication between II
north and the south; but the Star of the
West expedition had been planned as a
surprise, and the utmost care was taken
in Washington to keep not only it's desti-
nation and purpose but even its very ex-
istence, n profound secret. These pre-
cautions were successful. nj least until
after the steamer had sailed. In fact the
Star of the West must have passed Cape
Hattcras before anybody in the south
knew tina she was coming. just how we
got wind of the expedition i'm the nick of
time has never, | believe, been told i'm
the war histories. There was. mt the