CAPTURE OF FORT SUMTER (April 14).--Finding that supplies were to be sent to Fort Sumter, General Peter G. T. Beauregard (bo-re-gard), who had command of the Confederate troops at Charleston, called upon Major Anderson to surrender. Upon his refusal, fire was opened from all the Confederate forts and batteries. [Footnote: The first gun of the war was fired at half-past four o'clock Friday morning, April 12, 1861.] This "strange contest between seventy men and seven thousand," lasted for thirty-four hours, no one being hurt on either side. The barracks having been set on fire by the shells, the garrison worn out, suffocated, and half-blinded, were forced to capitulate. They were allowed to retire with the honors of war, saluting their flag before hauling it down. _The Effect_ of this event was electrical. It unified the North and also the South. The war spirit swept over the country like wild-fire. Party lines vanished. The Union men at the South were borne into secession, while the republicans and democrats at the North combined for the support of the government, Lincoln issued a requisition for seventy-five thousand troops. It was responded to by three hundred thousand volunteers, the American flag, the symbol of Revolutionary glory and of national unity, being unfurled throughout the North. The military enthusiasm at the South was equally ardent. Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee, which had before hesitated, joined the Confederacy. Virginia troops seized the United States armory at Harper's Ferry, and the Navy Yard at Norfolk. [Footnote: Here were foundries, ship-yards, machine shops, two thousand cannon, two hundred and fifty thousand pounds of gunpowder, great quantities of shot and shell, and twelve ships of war. The ships were scuttled or fired, but vast stores, which were of inestimable value at the beginning of the war, fell into the Confederate hands.] Richmond, Va., was made the Confederate capital. Troops from the extreme South were rapidly pushed into Virginia, and threatened Washington. A regiment of Massachusetts militia hurrying to the defence of the national capital, was attacked in the streets of Baltimore, and several men were killed. Thus the first blood shed in the civil war was on April 19, the anniversary of Lexington and Concord. [Footnote: A Union soldier who was shot in this affray, turned about, saluted the flag, and exclaiming, "All hail the stars and stripes!" fell lifeless.] THE WAR IN VIRGINIA. ARLINGTON HEIGHTS AND ALEXANDRIA Were seized (May 24) by the national troops. This protected Washington from any immediate danger of attack. [Footnote: Alexandria is on the southern side of the Potomac, eight miles below Washington. Arlington Heights are directly opposite the capital.]