Hostilities Commenced!

Harper’s Weekly
April 20, 1861

On Friday, 12th, at 27 minutes past 4 A. M., General Beauregard, in accordance with instructions received on Wednesday from the Secretary of War of the Southern Confederacy, opened fire upon Fort Sumter. Forts Johnson and Moultrie, the iron battery at Cumming’s Point, and the Stevens Floating Battery, kept up an active cannonade during the entire day, and probably during the past night. The damage done to Fort Sumter is stated by the Confederate authorities to have been considerable. Guns had been dismounted, and a part of the parapet swept away.

Major Anderson had replied vigorously to the fire which had been opened upon him, but the Charleston dispatches represent the injury inflicted by him to have been but small. The utmost bravery had been exhibited on both sides, and a large portion of the Charleston population, including five thousand ladies, were assembled upon the Battery to witness the conflict.

The Civil War is officially 150 years old today.

And there’s tons of stuff out there to help as you work with your kids:

Disunion
Disunion revisits and reconsiders America’s most perilous period — using contemporary accounts, diaries, images and historical assessments to follow the Civil War as it unfolded.

A House Divided
The Washington Post’s “News and views about the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War.”

Civil War 150
The Post’s ongoing special coverage of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War

Searching for Sesquicentennial Sources
National History Education Clearinghouse put this list together

Civil War Curriculum
From the Civil War Trust, a whole ton of lessons divided by grade level.

Lessons on Slavery, the Crisis of the Union, the Civil War and Reconstruction
Awesome stuff from the EDSITEment people

The Civil War Sesquicentennial
National Geographic has put together a nice collection of goodies