For several days after Louis returned home matters moved along quietly at the dairy farm. Then came Christmas, and among the boy’s gifts was a new silver watch and chain from his mother and father, and knit mittens and a neck muffler from Lucy and Martha. Of course Louis made gifts in return, things bought with some money left at home when he had started on his visit to Andy; and the holiday passed with a pleasantness long to be remembered. A few days later came news from Charleston which set everybody to talking. It was to the effect that Major Anderson, in command of Fort Moultrie, had abandoned that stronghold, spiked his guns and burned their carriages, and moved to Fort Sumter. The fort where this United States officer had been stopping was a low-walled place, hard to defend, and on the coast; the place to which he had withdrawn was on an island in the harbor, and was as strong as a fort could well be. The South Carolinians had for a long while thought they could swoop down upon Major Anderson and his force and secure an easy surrender. Now, when they saw the plucky commander entrenched behind the frowning walls of Fort Sumter they grew furious, and at once made preparations to occupy not only the works which the Union men had abandoned but also a number of other places, including ancient Fort Johnson, which had been abandoned since the Revolution. “We’ll drive the Yankees out in fine style,” they told each other. And then came a wait of several months, as winter set in throughout the North, and other matters claimed attention in the South. South Carolina had seceded from the Union on the twentieth of December, 1860. On the ninth of January following, Mississippi joined her Southern sister, and then Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas did likewise by the first of February. There followed a lull, and then came the shot which, as some writers have said, was heard around the world, a shot which threw our great and glorious nation into a war that lasted four years and cost thousands upon thousands of lives, and millions upon millions of dollars. Fort Sumter was fired upon by the Confederates. Major Anderson had been called upon to evacuate and had refused. On Friday morning, April 12, 1861, at exactly half-past four o’clock, a shell was thrown from Fort Johnson and burst directly over Sumter. It was a signal-gun, and directly afterwards came a shot from an ironclad battery on Morris Island; and then began a fierce bombardment which lasted all day and all night, and the greater part of the next day. Fort Sumter was fairly riddled with cannon-balls and torn up by shells, and was set on fire a score of times. Such a fierce onslaught could not long be endured, and feeling the uselessness of fighting further, and being nearly out of provisions, a flag of truce was displayed, and arrangements were made to evacuate the next day.