Salt Lake Tribune | 1909-08-08 | Page 47 | Attack on Fort Sumter in 1861

1 -eL. M: Attack oo Fort Sumter in 1861 -jd3 1$ nrs hattlc ot the great civil war. .j? war of father against son and brother nat brother, was a bloodless one. For ly-four hours tho .batteries of General J, iircgard at Charleston, S. C. poured J Lcady stream of shot and shell into .Sumter, anil Major Anderson, hi imand of the small union force there, wed tho fire as long as his ammunl- iij' jheld out, but on neither side was ft 4 &nr b'00(1 sno1- 1J J pre has always boon somewhat of a J it 03 to who fired, the first gun of ty6 Var. though It is known, of course. J-'- hostilities were Inaugurated by the jiu The bombardment of Sumter bc-fVf bc-fVf lat 4:30 on tho morning of Friday, ,uv I 12. 1801, and one Kdnnind Ruffin. ,' vhltc-halrcd Virginian, claimed the t" Sct,on of having come all the way wjhls native stuio to lxig tho favor of VjSfe th3 first gun of the war. Later, S .liln.hf Ell-.V . I... ....... ...c .. (., (,. I " HIV .-.4.i IIIA bU'llo tf Jshe committed suicide. jlf lis claim of priority was, however, &t s who asserted that Captain George , Vr raiiies fired the "shot heard round , P world," after offering the privilege rjR Roger A. Pryor, later a judge of tho seme court ot New York. Pryor. 'bl ?aa alleged, declined tho diHtlnction WQ his native state, Virginia, had 1 Ki .yet seceded. JlK ktorj' tells us that the coolest persona K 5 1 "p'Shborliood during the bombard -s,imt(,r were T.lajor Anderson i rrIyo" of seventy-nine soldiers uii thirty laborers, who helped to work 8 Si FHns' K"0wlng that he wuh to be at-4$, at-4$, ;ed, and that the fort was In nowise f ISTfd l? defend itself, he determined 'W t)'.; besL of conditions as they llfTsT A11 ,l,ui hreakfnst bnforo the ,K,coJimo',aei1' lu"1 when action was hM tnoy( answered the fire from the jisrlcs pn thr, Cnrollna shore as bst J .Hiilul . By "00n supply of am--l !la,ni lmd Blvon out. The shells Jped Into the fort at tho rate of ono Si Jiwenty minutes. The officers' bar- i4UY, TUr6t 1,nt0 flamos on the second day ?7okc became ro dense that the I'tSt IVrM1. hv1'10 onl' bi' ly'g down telhlnb' the alr aa it ;ame in below 7ihn?0rV 7he ,lr0 W!IS extinguished a J ?r "'ries and as many times It (fi ou,t nealn. Tlie danger from ex-W ex-W W H01'""'" ver' Brent and ninety i. ;' S i,po,wder were thrown Into the i" f ni111 l"Ji niagasslnes wero closed. '1' V'h,1,Bl1 ,iad bce" half-masted i5SLn,al 01 I,8l earlier In the bom-ti-5 iSrilS 5v'a:' r?n'aced by the white Hag 74 S' ,andi th,! ,flrst WBWment of ''gS SovSr c "I,d cruel w,,ir Jfi5 ''hP People of Charleston hoard of j, surrender of Iajor Anderson they ' H J went v.-ild v.-Ith Joy; the cause of the secessionists se-cessionists was thought to have been already al-ready won; "southern independence" was a cry uttered by every throat in tha Carolina city. But the same event which caused so much temporary rejoicing In the south was received, naturally, In a very different spirit in the north. It 'iroused the Ire of every northerner, and, where previous to the fall of Sumter thor had been but a half-hearted interest inter-est In tho protection of northern Interests If war should come, there was now a mad desire to fight; to avenge the wrong done when the ling had been fired upon, and to fight1 to the last for the perpetuation of the union. And it is the remaining veterans of the rapidly-thinning ranks of thoso brave defenders de-fenders of the union to whom Salt L,ake. Is on the eve of paying the respect and homage of this great intcrmountaln empire. em-pire. .