Virtual Symposium 2020: The First Shots of the Civil War

Today, we’re pleased to share Mark Maloy’s talk from the 2020 ECW Virtual Symposium. Mark, who once worked at Fort Sumter in Charleston, spoke on “The First Shots of the Civil War.”

“I really enjoy the story of the first shots at Fort Sumter because of all personalities involved,” Mark says: “The reserved and conservative Major Robert Anderson; the outspoken abolitionist Abner Doubleday; the former pupil of Anderson at West Point- turned-general PGT Beauregard; the bombastic, enthusiastic Louis Wigfall; and the fire-eater Edmund Ruffin, just to name a few. Not only are their stories interesting to read about, but the actions that took place in Charleston harbor were so important and rippled across the country.”

Maloy, known to most of our readers as one of the bulwarks at our sister site, Emerging Revolutionary War, was pleased for the opportunity to talk a little Civil War at the virtual symposium. “The virtual symposium was a great event and I really enjoyed being invited to participate,” he says. “Of course I missed seeing and talking to all the people that normally participate in the annual symposium, but it was nice to be able to do a safe, socially-distant version that I hope people will enjoy from their homes. The ECW group is a great group of people, and even though there were only a few of us on site for the virtual program, it was nice to be able to talk and catch up with some of the other historians.”

Click here to access Mark’s talk on the ECW YouTube page.

Meanwhile, tickets for the rescheduled Seventh Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge are available for early bird purchase by clicking here. Tickets are $155.00 each and cover all three days, August 6-8, 2021. Our theme, “Fallen Leaders,” will feature a keynote address by Gordon Rhea on the fall of Jeb Stuart at Yellow Tavern, ten speakers, and a battlefield tour of Longstreet’s wounding in the Wilderness by Greg Mertz.