Civil War Oddities #125

An artillery duel at long distance constituted the first battle of the war. Inside Fort Sumter, eighty-five Federals, who were aided by forty-three civilian workmen, managed to get off numerous shots at installations manned by more than 6,000 secessionists. During the thirty-eight-hour exchange of fire from sixty-nine big guns, more than 3,000 shells, some of them hot shot heated in a furnace, were fired. Not a man among defenders or attackers was killed.