2-365-464 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Edmund Ruffin, 'Father of Secession in Virginia', 1860-1865 (1955) Ruffin (1794-1865) was a farmer and slaveholder who was a strong supporter of the secession of his state of Virginia from the Union. He is popularly believed to have fired the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. He committed suicide after General Robert E Lee surrendered at Appomattox. A print from Mathew Brady Historian with a Camera by James D Horan, Bonanza Books, New York, 1955.