battles of lexington fired the first shot in the civil war.
battles of lexington fired the first shot in the civil war.
who fired the first shot in the civil war?
battles of lexington
at 4:30 a.m. on april 12, 1861, lt. henry s. farley, acting upon the command of capt. george s. james, fired a single 10-inch mortar round from fort johnson. (james had offered the first shot to roger pryor, a noted virginia secessionist, who declined, saying, "i could not fire the first gun of the war.") the shell exploded over fort sumter as a signal to open the general bombardment from 43 guns and mortars at fort moultrie, fort johnson, the floating battery, and cummings point. under orders from beauregard, the guns fired in a counterclockwise sequence around the harbor, with 2 minutes between each shot; beauregard wanted to conserve ammunition, which he calculated would last for only 48 hours. edmund ruffin, another noted virginia secessionist, had traveled to charleston to be present for the beginning of the war, and fired one of the first shots at sumter after the signal round, a 64-pound shell from the iron battery at cummings point. the shelling of fort sumter from the batteries ringing the harbor awakened charleston's residents (including diarist mary chesnut), who rushed out into the predawn darkness to watch the shells arc over the water and burst inside the fort.
battle of fort sumter
some witnesses among the regulars reported the first shot was fired by a colonial onlooker from behind a hedge or around the corner of a tavern. some observers reported a mounted british officer firing first. both sides generally agreed that the initial shot did not come from the men on the ground immediately facing each other. speculation arose later in lexington that a man named solomon brown fired the first shot from inside the tavern or from behind a wall, but this has been discredited. some witnesses (on each side) claimed that someone on the other side fired first; however, many more witnesses claimed to not know. yet another theory is that the first shot was one fired by the british, that killed asahel porter, their prisoner who was running away (he had been told to walk away and he would be let go, though he panicked and began to run). historian david hackett fischer has proposed that there may actually have been multiple near-simultaneous shots. historian mark urban claims the british surged forward with bayonets ready in an undisciplined way, provoking a few scattered shots from the militia. in response the british troops, without orders, fired a devastating volley. this lack of discipline among the british troops had a key role in the escalation of violence.
battles of lexington and concord