Edmund Ruffin - Pre-war Life

Pre-war Life

Ruffin was born in Prince George County, Virginia. He was a descendant of William Randolph. He was a farmer and agronomist. For a time, he was editor of the Farmers Register and investigated at some length the possibility of using lime to raise pH in peat soils to improve agricultural productivity. During the pre-war years, he was interested in the origin of bogs and published several detailed descriptions of the Dismal and Blackwater Swamps. Ruffin would later be better known for his contributions to agriculture and not so much for his claim to have fired the first shot of the Civil War. Specifically, he aided the Southern economy by proposing new and ingenious ways to rotate and fertilize tobacco crops such that fields could be used over and over to grow the valuable plant.

In 1860, Ruffin wrote Anticipations of the Future, to Serve as Lessons for the Present Time. In it, he pictured what he apprehended would be the result of the election of Republican candidates. He predicted an American Civil War in 1868 following the re-election of President William H. Seward, which would ultimately result in a victory for Southern states. Although most of his predictions were wrong, Ruffin correctly predicted that the war would start with an attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.