Star Of The West Story

"...fired the first hostile shot of the [Civil] war..." [at the Star of the West].

Source

Another incident involving the "Star of the West:"

One young man revealed to me this strange experience. He was born in Massachusetts, but before he was fifteen he thought he would shift for himself ,and ran away and settled in Columbia, S.C., working in a gun-factory and joining a volunteer battery.

When the war broke out--looking upon it as a kind of holiday frolic, and loving adventure--he followed his battery to Charleston, where his services were very much in demand as there were few skillful gunners among the Charlestonians.

When it was known that the "Star of the West" was coming to bring supplies to Fort Sumter, he was recalled from his own to take charge of the Cummings Point battery, and trained the gun that made the ship lower its flag. This was the first time that the United States flag had been lowered to a hostile shot since the War of 1812, and though Edward Ruffin of Virginia had been granted the privilege of discharging the gun, strange to tell, it was charged and trained by a Massachusetts man. He afterwards joined the Second South Carolina Infantry, and was ordered to Virginia, and helped to drive the Fourth Ohio out of the very place where we were then encamped. But when it came to meeting Massachusetts regiments and perhaps his own brothers in the fight, he felt the stronger drawing of the old home ties and deserted and came within our lines at Alexandria and was now fighting under the old flag. [Source]

Statue Dedicated To The Confederate Defenders Of Charleston, SC