...s that were saved. the greatest misfortune to the Union cause. the Merrimac, etc., etc. At thirty minutes past 4 o'clock, on April 12, 1861, the first gun of civil war was fired, the battery on James Island discharging the first howitzer shell, which fell inside Fort Sumter, blowing up a building; this was almost immediately followed by another shell, which scattered destruction all around. Fort Mou...