Edmund Ruffin
-------------
Whether it be legend or fact, Ruffin is usually cited as the man who
pulled the lanyard that fired the first "official" shot of the Civil
War at Fort Sumter.
1794-1865
Edmund Ruffin of Virginia was sixty-five at the time of John Brown's
raid at Harpers Ferry. Years before he had made his reputation as the
South's leading agricultural reformer. Now he was regarded as one of
his region's foremost agitators for secession. On December 2, 1859,
he witnessed Brown's execution in Charles Town, Virginia. In a
borrowed overcoat of the Virginia Military Institute, he stood
shoulder to shoulder with the institute's cadets, who were more than
a little amused to have an old man with shaggy hair temporarily join
their ranks. Afterward Ruffin arranged to have one of Brown's pikes
(intended for the use of slave insurgents) sent to each governor of a
slaveholding state, with the label "Sample of the favors designed for
us by our Northern Brethren."
Ruffin welcomed the start of sectional hostilities in April 1861.
Allegedly he fired one of the first rebel shots at Fort Sumter in
Charleston harbor, this time as an honorary member of the Palmetto
Guards. Yet the war that began so hopefully for Ruffin left him
bitter at the end. With his Virginia plantation despoiled, his slaves
set free, and the Southern cause lost, In 1865, Ruffin loaded a gun,
wrapped himself in a Confederate battle flag, and shot himself to
death rather then accepting or admitting defeat.
