Edmund Ruffin

Edmund Ruffin (January 5, 1794 – June 18, 1865) was born in Prince George County, Virginia. He was a descendant of William Randolph, the progenitor of the Randolph family. Ruffin was a farmer and slaveholder, a Confederate soldier, and an 1850s political activist. He advocated states' rights, secession, and slavery and was described by opponents as one of the fire-eaters. Ruffin was an ardent supporter of the Confederacy and an enemy of the North for its intrusion and invasion of his beloved Virginia.

Early Agronomist

In addition to his notoriety as a Civil War fire-eater, Ruffin was also a farmer and agronomist. For a time he was editor of the "Farmers Register" and investigated at some length the possibilities of using lime to raise pH in peat soils to improve agricultural productivity. During these pre-Civil War years he was interested in the origin of bogs and published several detailed descriptions of the Dismal and Blackwater Swamps.

Civil War Role

As the sectional hostilities which led to the American 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 claimed that he fired the first shot on Fort Sumter. His story has been widely believed, but Lieutenant Henry S. Farley, commanding a battery of two mortars on James Island fired the first shot at 4:30 A.M., April 12, 1861. Ruffin did fire a shot at Fort Sumter later that morning

*cite book |last= Mathew |first= William M. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= Edmund Ruffin and the crisis of slavery in the Old South : the failure of agricultural reform |year= 1988 |publisher= University of Georgia Press|location= Athens, GA|id= ISBN 0820310115

*Mitchell, Betty L. (circa 1981). "Edmund Ruffin, a biography." Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253308763