The First Shots of the Civil War

The first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina at 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861, when Confederate batteries surrounding the fort opened fire on the federal garrison inside. The bombardment lasted 34 hours before the Union commander, Major Robert Anderson, surrendered the fort. Remarkably, no one was killed in combat during the attack itself; two Union soldiers died in an accidental explosion during the surrender ceremony. The fall of Fort Sumter prompted President Lincoln to call for 75,000 volunteers and formally began the four-year war that killed over 600,000 Americans.

Source: Wikipedia