Shortly before dawn on the morning of April 12, 1861, a Confederate mortar shell arched over the waters of Charleston Harbor and burst on the parade ground of Fort Sumter. The Civil War had stated.This book takes you inside the walls of Sumter at that historic moment.It is a close-focus dramatic account of the intrigues, the conflicts of principle and policy, the clash of personalities that led up to that dawn-and to the battle that followed.You will meet the Union commander of Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, a loyal and courageous officer tormented by his love for the South and his hatred of bloodshed. You will see him striving for nearly four desperate months both to arm Sumter and to prevent a showdown there.You will watch his adversaries-a fiery South Carolina governor; a U.S. Secretary of War secretly aiding the Secessionist cause; and Andersn"s former pupil and comrade-in-arms, now a Confederate general-as they try to trap him into firing the first shot, to undermine the morale of his garrison and the faith of his supporters in the North, and to pevent suppllies and reinforcements from reaching him.You will be with Anderson when last-minute negotiations fail and he has no choice but to await the first shot. And you will be at the battle itself-the thirty-four hour bombardment which the tiny Federal garrison valiantly endured, even though they were outmanned and outgunned, their suppllies wre depleted, and they had begun to fear that the Union fleet standing in the storm-lashed waters at the harbor entrance could not help them,.Roy Meredith has drawn on the letters, diaries, news dispatches and official papers of the period to re-create the personal and public drama, the causes and cosequences of a crucial episode in our history.