Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/121

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A. M., nearly ;ill the lotteries in harbor were tiring on Sumter. Mr. Kdimind Ruftin (who was much beloved and respected) was at tin- iron battery on Morris Island. I always understood he fired tin- first gun from the iron battery, but one thing is certain he never fired the first gun against Fort Sumter. < ieorge S. James did. Nor did he fire the second gun. He may have fired the third gun, or first gun from the iron battery on Morris Island.

Yours respectfully,

S. D. LEE.

REPLY OF JULIAN M. RUFFIN.

The above abstract having come to my notice, I desire to give the farts as to the part that Edmund Ruftin, of Virginia, took in the fir- ing on Fort Sumter. I have before me his journal, written at that time, and will copy what bears upon the subject:

"April 12, (1861). Before 4 A. M. the drums beat for parade, and our company was speedily on the march to the batteries which they were to man. At 4:30 a signal shell was thrown from a mortar battery at Fort Johnson, which had been before ordered to be taken as the command for immediate attack, and firing from all the bat- teries bearing on Fort Sumpter, next began in the order arranged, which was that the discharges should be two minutes apart, and the round of all the pieces and batteries to be completed in thirty-two minutes, and then to begin again. The night before, when expect- ing to engage, Captain Cuthbert had notified me that his company requested of me to discharge the first cannon to be fired, which was their 64-pound Columbiad, loaded with shell. Of course I was highly gratified by the compliment, and delighted to perform the service which I did, The shell struck the fort at the northeast angle of the parapet. By order of General Beauregard, made known the afternoon of the nth, the attack was to be commenced by the first shot at the fort being fired by the Palmetto Guard, and from the iron battery. In accepting and acting upon this highly appreciated compliment, that compamy had made me its instrument," &C

The above, as written at that very time, would fully establish the fact that the first shot was fired by Edmund Ruffin, and it will be observed that the signal shot which he refers to at Fort Johnson, at 4:30 A. M., is the same that S. D. Lee claims as the first shot at Fort Sumter at the same time (4:30 A. M.). Now, he too, might