The Bombardment of Fort Sumter on 12th April 1861 (Library of Congress)

Hough and his comrades were part of the Fort Sumter garrison in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina which endured the Confederate bombardment that sparked the deadly four-year conflict. He and his companions survived the initial action, but it was during a salute to the flag fired after the Fort’s surrender that Daniel met his end. He was killed on 14th April 1861, when the cartridge he was loading prematurely went off, in an explosion that also mortally wounded fellow Irishman Edward Gallway. Over four years after the event, on Saturday 17th June 1865, and with the conflict now at an end, a man identifying himself as Daniel Hough’s brother William wrote a letter that was published in the New York Herald-Tribune:

Secession’s First Victim

To His Excellency, President Johnson:

Sir: The N.Y. Journal of Commerce in a recent issue, published the name of the first man who was killed in this war, Daniel Howe.

His father’s name was Timothy Howe; his mother’s maiden name was Catharine Lacey; his birthplace was the town of Nenagh, county of Tipperary, Ireland. Daniel was killed at Fort Sumter (in 1861) and there interred in the presence of then Major (now Brigadier-Gen.) Anderson, and of Beauregard.

The writer of this is a brother of the above-mentioned Daniel, and is a humble and comparatively obscure citizen of these United States, a man of limited pecuniary means; and one object of this communication is to express a desire to have the remains of his brother removed from Sumter to Calvary Cemetery, on Long Island.

It might not be deemed presumptious to suggest to your Excellency that the United States Government could consistently defray the expenses of such desired removal, and possibly induced to go a step further and erect a suitable monument over the last resting place in Calvary of the remains of Daniel Howe.

It will not be presumptious to add that the writer feels some pride in calling your Excellency’s attention to the above statement, and also in giving it this publicity. 

Should your Excellency be disposed to think favorably of this “expressed desire,” the writer would feel proud and happy to be allowed to superintend the arrangements necessary to carry it out, and forever be Your most grateful and obedient servant,

William Howe,

Westchester House, corner Bowery and Brooms-st., New York City, June 15, 1865. (1)

Further work is required to fully confirm the contents of this letter. Previous research has been carried out on Hough’s origins by Tom Hurley for his excellent ‘What the Hough- the First Casualty of the American Civil War was a Tipperary Soldier’ radio documentary, which was broadcast on Tipp FM in 2012. Tom’s work identified a Daniel Hough born in Borrisokane in 1829 as the most likely candidate for the Fort Sumter Hough. He is certainly a strong contender. This Hough was baptised on 1st August 1829, the son of John Hough and Ellen Quinlan. However, this differs from the details in the 1865 letter, in which Timothy Howe and Catharine Lacey are identified as the parents of the Fort Sumter Daniel Hough. This raises the possibility that they may not be the same individual. (2)

Initial reviews have not revealed a marriage of Timothy Howe and Catharine Lacey in north Tipperary, but records are far from complete, and only additional research can answer the question as to whether evidence exists of their union. The primary question is if the William Howe who wrote this letter is genuine, or if he was an imposter attempting to profit in some way from an association with the Daniel Hough who died at Fort Sumter. However, if we accept the letter as genuine, then there is no reason to doubt that Daniel Hough was indeed a native of Nenagh.

William’s published letter provides us with vital new information to further explore Daniel’s origins in Ireland, which should allow additional research into his life before he departed for the United States. Although the 1865 letter to have Daniel Hough suitably remembered proved fruitless, it may be that 150 years later the information provided in it may inadvertently allow for the suitable commemoration of Daniel Hough (or Howe) in the town of his birth. It seems that this may well be Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.

(1) New York Herald Tribune; (2) North Tipperary Genealogy Centre Church Baptism Records;

References

New York Herald-Tribune 17th June 1865. Secession’s First Victim.

North Tipperary Genealogy Centre Church Baptism Records.

The Bombardment of Fort Sumter on 12th April 1861 (Library of Congress)

Captain Abner Doubleday is the man generally regarded to have fired the first Union shot of the war from Sumter. The New Yorker would eventually rise to the rank of Major-General of volunteers during the conflict. He later described the circumstances surrounding this ‘first shot’:

As I was the ranking officer, I took the first detachment, and marched them to the casemates, which looked out upon the powerful iron-clad battery of Cummings Point. In aiming the first gun fired against the rebellion I had no feeling of self-reproach, for I fully believed that the contest was inevitable, and was not of our seeking…My first shot bounded off from the sloping roof of the battery opposite without producing any apparent effect. It seemed useless to attempt to silence the guns there; for our metal was not heavy enough to batter the work down, and every ball glanced harmlessly off, except one, which appeared to enter an embrasure and twist the iron shutter, so as to stop the firing of that particular gun. I observed that a group of the enemy had ventured out from their intrenchments to watch the effect of the fire, but I sent them flying back to their shelter by the aid of a forty-two-pounder ball, which appeared to strike in among them. (1)

So Abner Doubleday certainly aimed the first gun and gave it the command to fire. But what of the gun crew? Of the 86 officers and men in the Fort Sumter military garrison, nearly 44% were Irishmen. Indeed the 38 Irish-born soldiers even outnumbered those born in the United States, who amounted to only 23 of the contingent. Some of these Irishmen manned the gun that Doubleday commanded to fire, and one would later claim to be the man who physically discharged the fateful shot. (2)

Abner Doubleday as a General of U.S. Volunteers (Library of Congress)

The Union men in Fort Sumter had initially been located at Fort Moultrie, but following South Carolina’s secession their commander Major Robert Anderson determined to shift the garrison to the more secure Sumter, which lay in the middle of Charleston Harbor. Anderson made the move on the night of 26th December 1860, but from here effectively became besieged. This sparked the crisis that came to a head with the action of April 12th 1861, when the Confederates opened fire on Sumter to prevent its imminent relief.

Prior to this decisive moment, the early months of 1861 had seen the nation gripped by the crisis; on the 7th January 1861 the New York Times reported that it was able to bring its readers the thoughts of one of the soldiers inside besieged Sumter for the first time. The Rochester Democrat had originally published the letter, which was from Private James Gibbons of Company E, 1st U.S. Artillery. He had penned the letter to his wife on 29th December, only three days after he and his comrades had moved to Sumter. The Times reported it as follows:

He [Gibbons] writes under the date of Dec. 29, gives a brief account of the withdrawal of the little army of Major Anderson from Fort Moultrie on the night of the 23d of December [sic.], and says, “We set the fort on fire, and cut down the flag-staff before we left.” He also states that 300 men from Charleston came the next day and occupied Fort Moultrie. This soldier is supposed to breadth the spirit that prevails in Fort Sumter, for he says “we are ready to fight, and intend to clean ‘em out.” Such a letter from an honest soldier in the fort, addressed to his wife, is of more value as indicating the state of affairs there than telegraphic dispatches sent from Charleston from secession sources. This is the first that we have heard of the feeling of the soldiers at Fort Sumter since that position was occupied by Maj. Anderson’s party. (3) 

James Gibbons was one of the Irish contingent in the garrison. He had been born in Co. Galway around 1833, and had most likely emigrated to the United States as a result of the Famine. By 1861 he was already a ten-year veteran of the army; on 14th November 1851 he had enlisted in Rochester, New York where he was described as a 5 foot 7 3/4 inch, 20-year-old laborer, with grey eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion. It is possible to track the Galwegian as he served at locations such as San Diego Barracks, California (1852), Fort Clark, Texas (1854) and Fort Columbus in New York (1859-1860) amongst other locations. His career had not gone completely without a hitch- the November 1859 return for Fort Columbus lists that Gibbons, then a member of Company I of the 1st U.S. Artillery, was ‘casually at the post’, awaiting trial for desertion. However by February 1860 the issue had been resolved, as Gibbons was then awaiting transfer to Company E of the unit and his fateful move to Fort Moultrie, which would take place on 18th February 1860. (4)

Why the focus on this one individual? The potential significance of James Gibbons emerges in an 1890 article originally published in the Erie Dispatch of Pennsylvania about one of their local veterans- none other than the Galway native. Describing him as a modest man averse to newspaper notoriety, the laborer was by then employed at the Anchor Line Company and lived on No.348 East Second Street in Erie. Entitled ‘The First Gun of the War’, the piece tells of Gibbons’ part during the fighting at Fort Sumter, claiming him to be the man who fired the first shot at the Confederates. It explained that ‘at the command of Anderson and Doubleday Gibbons pulled the lanyard of the 42-pounder that sent back Sumter’s defiance to the battery behind the barrier of railroad iron at Cumming’s Point’. The paper also gave the Irishman’s own memories of the momentous occasion:

The rebels opened on us just before daylight with a shot from Fort Johnson that came singing over our parapet. It was about two seconds before another came along, and then another, and another, until the 360 guns at Fort Johnson, Fort Moultrie, and Cumming’s Point were playing upon us. It was about five o’clock when the Southerners began firing. It was seven o’clock, fully an hour after daylight, before we responded. We had only two companies there, E and H, of the First Regiment United States Artillery. The men and officers numbered seventy-one, and besides these there were sixteen laborers in the fort. Captain Doubleday had command of Company E, and was ordered by Major Anderson to fire on Cumming’s Point. Captain Doubleday stood two feet behind me as I held the lanyard, and at his command I pulled it. It was a good shot, for it struck the wall at the Point, but the next shot, from the adjoining gun, was a better one. The rebels had laid a lot of railroad iron along the ramparts, and one of their men was walking on the slanting surface. The shot struck the iron, and the effect must have been prodigious, for the man who was walking over the iron shot up into the air and fell inside the walls of the fort. (5)

Private James Gibbons, Company E, 1st U.S. Artillery. Did the Galwayman fire the first Union shot of the American Civil War? (New York World)

Gibbons continued his account with a description of the actions of John Carroll, who threw a burning shell into the ditch during the bombardment, before going on to describe the surrender and evacuation of Sumter. Some weight is added to Gibbons’ version of events by the fact that Abner Doubleday clearly regarded the Galwegian highly, as he supplied him with the following reference on his discharge from the service in 1862:

Washington, March 31, 1862

Private Gibbons of Company E, First Regiment of the United States Artillery, has been in the United States service for many years. He has crossed the Continent overland and has undergone great hardships and dangers among the Indian tribes in the far west, in Texas, and also more recently in Florida. He was one of the most loyal, efficient, gallant, and zealous defenders of the flag at Fort Sumter. He has always been a good soldier and I cheerfully recommend him to the good offices of those who value courage, patriotism, and good conduct. 

A. DOUBLEDAY. Brig. Gen. Vol. (6)

James Gibbons seems to have been widely accepted as the man who fired the North’s first shot of the war in the years following 1890. The story was reprinted by the New York Irish World, and in later years was mentioned by papers across the United States*. He died at 216 1/2 East Second Street, Erie on 19th February 1910, and was survived by his daughter Mrs. Mary Murray. His death brought another flurry of references to him and his involvement in firing the first gun for the Union, and was recorded by newspapers in States as disparate as Maryland, Texas, Ohio, Oregon and Illinois**.(7)

Abner Doubleday is widely regarded as the man who fired the first shot for the Union in the American Civil War. However in his own account of the event he does not actually state that he physically fired the round, and it is possible that what he means is that he ordered the aiming of the gun and gave the verbal command for it to fire, as would have been usual at the time. James Gibbons claims to have been the man who physically pulled the lanyard that sent the first shell on its way towards the target. It is of course somewhat immaterial to distinguish between the officer who commanded the gun to be fired and the soldier who physically executed the order- both would have a right to claim that they fired the ‘first shot.’ Nonetheless the Galwayman does have a strong claim to involvement in the event, and one which is certainly worthy of further examination. The first Union death of the Civil War was an Irishman- Tipperary native Private Daniel Hough of the Sumter garrison- it maybe that his countryman James Gibbons may yet be rescued from relative obscurity, and be seen as the first man to fire in defence of the cause of Union.

The United States flag that flew over Fort Sumter on 12th April 1861 (National Park Service)

* See for example the Elkhart Daily Review of 18th March 1893 (Elkhart, Indiana); Daily Telegram of 20th February 1893 (Adrian, Michigan); Philadelphia Inquirer of 25th January 1904 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).

**See for example ‘Saw Fort Sumter Fired On. James Gibbons, Who Sighted First Union Gun, Dead’ in the Sun of 20th February 1910 (Baltimore, Maryland); ‘James Gibbons Dead’ in the Beaumont Enterprise of 20th February 1910 (Beaumont, Texas); ‘Fired the First Shot. Civil War Veteran, Who Opened Conflict at Fort Sumter, Dies’ in the Plain Dealer of 20th February 1910 (Cleveland, Ohio); ‘Sumter Survivor Dies. Man Who Sighted First Gun Fired by Union Forces Passes’ in the Oregonian of 20th February 1910 (Portland, Oregon); ‘Hero of Fort Sumter Dead’ in the Daily Illinois State Journal of 21st February 1910 (Springfield, Illinois);

(1) Doubleday 1876: 145-6; (2) NPS: Fort Sumter’s Garrison by Nationality, Irish World; (3) New York Times; (4) U.S. Army Register of Enlistments 1798-1914, U.S. Returns for Military Posts 1806-1916; (5) Irish World; (6) Irish World; (7) Civil War Pension Index Card, Baltimore Sun;

References and Further Reading

Baltimore Sun 20th February 1910: Saw Fort Sumter Fired On. James Gibbons, Who Sighted First Union Gun, Dead

Civil War Pension Index Card of John Gibbons (Fold 3)

Doubleday, Abner 1876. Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-’61

Fort Sumter National Park Service: Fort Sumter’s Garrison By Nationality

New York Irish World 7th June 1890: The First Gun of the War Fired From Sumter By James Gibbons. An Erie Pennsylvania Veteran Bears The Honor

New York Times 7th January 1861: Letter From A Soldier in Fort Sumter

U.S. Army Register of Enlistments 1798-1914 (Ancestry.com)

U.S. Returns From Military Posts, 1806-1916 (Ancestry.com)

Fort Sumter National Monument

Civil War Trust Battle of Fort Sumter Page

Commander Stephen C. Rowan

Stephen Rowan was born in Dublin in 1808, emigrating to the United States with his father a few years later. He joined the navy in 1826 as a Midshipman, and served in the Pacific and Mediterranean prior to the Mexican War, where he commanded one of the naval battalions in California (1). Now, as the Commander of the Pawnee, he complied promptly with Gideon Welles’ instructions. The following day, 5th April, saw another dispatch to Rowan from the Secretary of the Navy. ‘Sir: After the Pawnee has been provisioned at Norfolk you will proceed with her to sea and on the morning of the 11th instant appear off Charleston bar, 10 miles distant from and due east of the light-house, where you will report to Captain Samuel Mercer, of the Powhatan, for special service. Should he not be there, you will await his arrival.’

On 10th April Rowan was able to report to Welles from off Cape Henry, informing the Secretary that he was at sea having been delayed somewhat by an easterly gale. The Pawnee was one of a number of ships that was steaming towards a location that was soon to achieve worldwide fame- Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The southern state had been the first to secede from the Union following the election of Lincoln, doing so on the 20th December 1860. Soon afterwards U.S. army Major Robert Anderson withdrew the men he commanded in Charleston to Fort Sumter, as tensions began to intensify with the local populace. The situation degenerated into a siege, and in March Brigadier-General P.G.T. Beauregard took charge of the Confederate forces opposing the Fort. The risk of war drew ever closer. As food supplies began to run low, Lincoln ordered naval vessels to attempt to resupply the fort. Stephen Rowan and the Pawnee was one of these vessels.

The Pawnee, Stephen Rowan's command in April 1861

At 7 o’clock on the morning of 12th April 1861 Rowan and the Pawnee arrived at their designated position off Charleston harbor. A small paddle-wheel steamer approached his ship, which proved to be the Harriet Lane. A boat from the steamer approached the Pawnee and Rowan was handed an order dated 5th April. The order outlined just what was expected of the Irishman and his crew; the seriousness of the situation must have been immediately apparent to all concerned. The order that Rowan read was from Secretary Welles to Captain Mercer, indicating that he was being given command of four steamers, the Powhatan, Pawnee, Pocahontas and Harriet Lane with the object of provisioning Fort Sumter. If the Charleston authorities allowed the Fort’s resupply the force could do so an withdraw. However, if they prevented it, Mercer and his force were to ‘protect the transports or boats of the expedition in the object of their mission, disposing of your force in such manner as to open the way for their ingress, and afford, so far as practicable, security to the men and boats, and repelling by force, if necessary, all obstructions toward provisioning the fort and reenforcing it; for in case of resistance to the peaceable primary object of the expedition a reenforcement of the garrison will also be attempted.’

Next on board Rowan’s ship was Captain Fox of the Baltic, one of the vessels charged with resupplying the Fort. He indicated that he intended to attempt to reach Sumter in boats, and asked for assistance in doing so. The Pawnee had a launch and a cutter armed to aid the Baltic. As the minutes passed, the Harriet Lane and the Baltic stood in towards the bar, but very shortly afterwards the Baltic came out again. Captain Fox informed Rowan the forts and batteries were firing on Fort Sumter. The Confederates had started firing on Major Anderson and his men in an attempt to force their surrender before the naval force could resupply them. The American Civil War had begun.

Bombardment of Fort Sumter, 1861, Engraving by George Edward Perine

Commander Rowan was able to observe that Fort Moultrie, Cumming’s Point, Fort Johnson and the sand and floating batteries were all firing at the Fort, which was responding with its own artillery. Captain Fox decided he would attempt to resupply the Fort the following morning, the 13th, with protection from Rowan. However, the Baltic grounded on Rattlesnake Shoal which further delayed any attempt until the following night. Meanwhile, the Pawnee noted a schooner passing close by, and suspecting it might be a ship belonging to the forces in Charleston Rowan fired three or four shots across her bows to force her to drop anchor. It transpired that it was a vessel from Philadelphia transporting ice, and the Irishman decided to commandeer her for the transfer of men and provisions. Events were destined to overtake Rowan’s plans. He describes what happened next: ‘This arrangement had scarcely been determined upon before a dense smoke issued from the weather side of Fort Sumter; for some time it was thought to be some floating fire craft dropped down against the walls to annoy and prevent the accuracy of Major Anderson’s fire. In two hours flames appeared above the ramparts on the opposite side of the fort from our position. At noon, or a little later, a body of flames curled far above the ramparts. We then became satisfied that the fort was on fire and feared that the gallant major and his little band would suffer severely….At about 2 o’clock the flagstaff on Fort Sumter was shot away, and we witnessed the sad spectacle of the fall of our flag, which we were so impotent to assist. In vain we looked for its reappearance over the fort; instead of this, the firing from Sumter became more and more weak, and at length ceased entirely.’

A boat was taken by Lieutenant Marcy under a flag of truce to the Confederate position at Cumming’s Point to determine if the Fort had surrendered. He returned with the news that it had. As part of the surrender terms the garrison of Sumter was allowed to depart with the ships. All that was left for Commander Rowan and the Pawnee to do was to assist in their transfer to the Baltic, and on 15th April he and the others made for Cape Henry.

Commander Stephen Rowan went on to perform well during the war, perhaps most notably in command of the naval contingent at New Bern during the Burnside Expedition. He remained in service until 1889 and achieved the rank of Vice Admiral. One wonders if he realised during those days in April 1861 that he was witnessing the start of a conflict that would drag on for four years and cause such untold death and destruction. He was one of the very few Union men who saw it all begin.

(1) Dougherty 2010: 18-19; Ayres 1910: 1

References & Further Reading

Ayres, Stephen Cooper 1910. Sketch of the Life and Services of Vice Admiral Stephen C. Rowan, U.S. Navy

Dougherty, Kevin 2010. Strangling the Confederacy: Coastal Operations in the American Civil War

Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies Series 1, Volume 4

Fort Sumter National Monument