Edmund Ruffin - Civil War

Civil War

As the sectional hostilities which led to the Civil War grew in the 1850s, Ruffin left Virginia for South Carolina, as he was angry that Virginia had not been the first state to secede from the Union. Ruffin fired one of the first shots on Fort Sumter. He was also the first one to enter Fort Sumter after it fell.

After the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House in 1865, Ruffin decided to commit suicide. After contemplating the idea for weeks, he resolved that his death would neither offend God nor harm his family, but would relieve his children from the burden of caring for him. He timed his death so his oldest son would be at home to bury him, but allowing enough time that the suicide would not overshadow a nephew’s upcoming wedding.

On June 17, 1865, Ruffin went up to his study with a rifle and a forked stick. He paused to add to his diary a final malediction against "the perfidious Yankee people." Then he was called away to greet visitors who had arrived at the front door. After they left, Ruffin returned to his study and wrote a final diary entry:

And now with my latest writing and utterance, and with what will near to my latest breath, I here repeat, & would willingly proclaim, my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule—to all political, social and business connections with Yankees, & to the perfidious, malignant, & vile Yankee race.

Immediately after writing this, Ruffin put the rifle muzzle in his mouth and used the forked stick to manipulate the trigger. The percussion cap went off without firing the rifle, and the noise alerted Ruffin's daughter-in-law. But by the time she and his son reached his room, Ruffin had already reloaded the rifle and fired a fatal shot.