Forty-Five Years Ago.
Forty-five years ago April 12, the
Confederate war was started by the
South Carolinians firing on the United
States troops occupying Fort Sumpter
in the harbor at Charleston. A Virginian,
Mr. Ruffin, was allowed to
fire the first shot at the United States
flag. A few days before the cadets of
the South Carolina Military Academy
had opened fire on the Federal ship
"Star of the West" from a battery on
Morris Island, near Charleston, but the
shot fired at Fort Sumpter was the
first official shot of the war.
