![Mr. Edmund Ruffin, said to have fired first shot against Fort Sumter (between ca. 1860 and 1865]; LOC: http://www.loc.gov/item/99471869/)](https://www.bluegrayreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/3c23816v.jpg)
at least one of the first shots
From The New-York Times June 22, 1865:
THE SUICIDE OF RUFFIN.; The Man who Fired the First Gun on Fort Sumter Blows His Brains Out He Prefers Death to Living Under the Government of the United States.
Correspondence of the Petersburgh Express.
RICHMOND, Monday, June 19.
EDMUND RUFFIN, whose name is familiar with every one as a distinguished agriculturalist, and latterly as a politician, committed suicide on Saturday last in Amelia county, near Mattoox station. The sad act had been duly considered by him, as his diary is said to show. He seated himself, and placing the muzzle of the musket in his mouth, sprung the trigger and landed his spirit into the eternal world, with a desperate and unnatural coolness. I think Mr. R. was born in Henrico county. He has been so clssely indentified with the struggle of the south as an active participant and a warm and earnest vindicator of her claims for a separate nationality, that he seems to have been considered rather as a citizen of the South than as belonging to any one particular locality. He had lost his property by the war. His remains reached the city at 10 o’clock last night on the Danville cars, accompanied by his son. The result of the war is said to have been the cause of this art. Mr. R. was upwards of seventy years of age.
glory days (Fort Sumter April 15, 1861)
Mr. Ruffin reduced a Coast Guard map of Charleston harbor in October 1863
I have learned since the above was written, that Mr. RUFFIN declared it impossible for him to live under the government, and that he had intended to commit the awful deed on the 9th of April, the day on which Gen. LEE surrendered, but was prevented on account of having company at his house.
stay away, Uncle Abe
From the Petersburgh Express, June 20.
Mr. RUFFIN was known throughout the State as a most successful agriculturalist. He lived in this city many years, and published here an agricultural periodical called the Farmer’s Register, which attained a large degree of public favor. He was also the author of a popular volume on calcareous manures, which contributed greatly to the improvement of our tidewater lands by bringing marls into use.
Mr. RUFFIN was at one time of his life, and for several years, a State Senator, and discharged his legislative duties with ability and industry. He was of a warm and excitable temperament, and maintained his political opinions with great earnestness and inflexibility. He belonged to the extreme Southern Rights’ party, and participated actively in the secession moveme[n]t, the disastrous issue of which was no doubt a terrible shock to him, and in all probability led to his self-destruction.
they’re back (Fort Sumter April 14, 1865)
It will be recollected that Mr. RUFFIN dug the first spadeful of earth for the building of works with which to assault Fort Sumter. Subsequently he fired the first gun at Sumter, an act of which he always spoke with pride and exultation.
You can read some of Mr. Ruffin’s last diary entry at the Library of Congress:
I here declare my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule—to all political, social & business connection with Yankees—& to the Yankee race. Would that I could impress these sentiments, in their full force, on every living southerner, & bequeath them to every one yet to be born! May such sentiments be held universally in the outraged & down-trodden South, though in silence & stillness, until the now far-distant day shall arrive for just retribution for Yankee usurpation, oppression, & atrocious outrages—& for deliverance & vengeance for the now ruined, subjugated, & enslaved Southern States!
Edmund Ruffin is buried at Marlbourne
still turnin’ over in his grave?
