Under orders from General P.G.T. Beauregard, Confederate artillery bombarded the Union-held Fort Sumter for 34 hours after its commander, Major Robert Anderson, refused to surrender. No one was killed in the bombardment itself, but the attack shattered any remaining hope of peaceful reconciliation and launched four years of civil war that would kill over 600,000 Americans.
The bombardment began at 4:30 a.m. when a mortar shell arced over the harbor, and within hours dozens of Confederate guns ringing Charleston Harbor joined in. Confederate militiaman Edmund Ruffin, a fervent secessionist, claimed the honor of firing one of the first shots, an old fire-eater's dream fulfilled after decades of pushing for Southern independence.
Major Anderson's garrison of roughly 85 men held out for 34 hours, returning fire with far fewer guns than the batteries surrounding them, before running low on ammunition and food. Remarkably, the bombardment killed no one on either side during the fighting itself; the only fatality came during the surrender ceremony, when a cannon salute misfired and killed a Union artillerist.
News of the attack rocketed across telegraph wires, and President Lincoln's subsequent call for 75,000 volunteer troops pushed several wavering states, including Virginia, into the Confederacy. What began as a standoff over a harbor fort became the opening act of the deadliest war in American history.
Key people: P.G.T. Beauregard, Robert Anderson