Wiki: Lt. Slemmer's "decision to abandon Barrancas was hastened when, around midnight of January 8, 1861, his guards repelled a group of local men intending to take the fort. Some historians suggest that these were the first shots fired by United States forces in the Civil War."
And
Rustbucket and I agree that Wikipedia is a good quick reference for common historical data, and especially useful when it agrees with rustbucket! ;-)
Yes, we do, and to the "useful" part I say, "Right on!" LOL.
Actually, you'll remember that in post 1121 where I quoted from Wikipedia about the Fort Barrancas first shot of the war, I warned that it was from Wikipedia. Then in that same post, I quoted information that confirmed what Wikipedia said from a history book I had bought at Fort Pickens. Later, in a subsequent post 1367, I provided yet another reference to the Fort Barrancas first shot, a report by one of the federal officers in Barrancas on that occasion.
I have been guilty before of citing stuff from Wikipedia with it as my sole source.
I responded by first reminding rustbucket that "some historians" is not "ALL historians."
Actually, your first words were, "Some "historians"? I doubt that." To answer your apparent doubt that there were historians who thought that, I supplied the job titles of some who helped prepare the manuscript I quoted from, including local and NPS historians, museum curators, and the president of the local historical society.
I'm off on another trip out of town at the break of dawn. Talk to you later.
Which I let go by without comment, figuring it was more important then to focus on larger issues than which historians might agree or disagree with which other historians.
But now that you bring it up again... ;-)
The article you quoted from was Wikipedia, and it did not name which historians agreed & disagreed. But I take the term "some historians" to be Wiki's acknowledgment that the claim is dubious, at best.
Not the fact that warning shots were fired -- that seems not in dispute. The issue is whether those shots constituted the "first shots" of the Civil War. And this is clearly a matter of interpretation.
The South began threatening & using force against Union facilities and people almost immediately after South Carolina seceded in December 1860. In most cases these were not opposed by Union force. We've discussed two exceptions -- Forts Pickens and Sumter -- but Lincoln mentioned two others: Forts Taylor and Jefferson in the Florida Keys.
So while the South seized dozens of Union facilities, the Union attempted to defend just four forts -- Pickens, Taylor, Jefferson and Sumter. Three of these were successful, but the defense of Sumter lead to artillery duals which caused Lincoln to declare the South in "insurrection," and Davis to declare war on the United States.
I say the Union's January 8 defense of Fort Pickens BEFORE Florida seceded was not an act of war, simply local crowd control. On the other hand the South's January 9 firing on Star of the West in seceded Charleston Harbor clearly was, imho...