Edmund Ruffin Biography

Edmund Ruffin (January 5, 1794 – June 18, 1865) was a wealthy Virginia planter and slaveholder, who in the 1850s was a political activist with the so-called Fire-Eaters. He staunchly advocated states' rights and slavery, arguing for secession years before the American Civil War. Ruffin is often credited with "firing the first shot of the war" at the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861; he served as a Confederate soldier despite his advanced age. When the war ended in Southern defeat in 1865, he committed suicide rather than submit to "Yankee rule."