About 4 a.m., a single beam of light reached skyward from the stone works of Fort Sumter. About a half hour later, about the time the first shots were fired, a second beam glowed, signifying a nation torn in two.
Nearby, a brass ensemble played a concert entitled “When Jesus Wept’’ as hundreds listened, some in folding chairs, others standing.
Fifty years ago during the centennial of the Civil War, there was a celebratory mood. But yesterday, the 150th anniversary events were muted. Even the applause seemed subdued.
Of about 1,200 people attending two main commemorative events, only a handful were black. One man whose Confederate ancestor is credited with firing the first shot of the war acknowledged his family legacy as a mixed blessing.
“I think it signifies the mood of the nation,’’ said Linda Marshall, 58, a registered nurse from Charleston as she waited for the second beam of light as dawn creeped up. “I think we’re much more sensitive to other people and the diversity in this country.’’
A little over two hours later, as a red sun rose on James Island across the harbor, Confederate reenactors fired an authentic 1847 seacoast mortar, signaling about 30 other cannons ringing the harbor.
Those cannons quickly thumped and smoke rose in a reenactment of the Sumter bombardment.
In a dispatch to The Associated Press in 1861, an unnamed correspondent observed the fort’s parapets crumbling under the pounding of artillery. He wrote of gun emplacements being shot away and shells falling thick and fast.
“The ball has opened. War is inaugurated … Fort Sumter has returned the fire and brisk cannonading has been kept up,’’ the dispatch said.
Sumter fell after a 34-hour bombardment.
One of those on hand on James Island was John Hugh Farley of Roswell, Ga. Many historians credit Farley’s ancestor, Lieutenant Henry Farley, as firing the first shot at Sumter.
