January 9, 1861
- “Star of the West” incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina. Secessionist forces in South Carolina fire at the Star of the West, forcing it to withdraw. Artillery fires on the Star of the West from Morris Island as it crosses into the main entrance channel to Charleston Harbor. As the ship comes about, Fort Moultrie opens fire, also with cannon shot. A mile and a half from Fort Sumter, the ship withdraws.
- The ship was fired upon by cadets from the Citadel Academy and was hit three times by what were effectively the first shots of the American Civil War. Although Star of the West suffered no major damage, her captain, John McGowan, considered it to be too dangerous to continue and turned about to leave the harbor. The mission was abandoned, and Star of the West headed for her home port of New York Harbor.
- Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War.
Image is of the firing on the ‘Star of the West’ from the South Carolina Battery on Morris Island. (Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War)