In 1861, The Confederate Army fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. As fate have it, the enemy commanders were well acquainted with one another, and this fact had fatal consequences for a private, Donald Hough.
Before the Rebels began their attack on Fort Sumter, General P.G.T. Beauregard sent a message out to Major Anderson, his old artillery instructor at West Point. The Confederate general, sure that he was going to be successful in taking the fort, informed Anderson that when the inevitable occurred, the Union commander would be given the opportunity to salute the Stars and Stripes before it was replaced with the Stars and Bars. With this understanding between the two former comrades, the ball began.
The Confederate batteries opened fire first, while Anderson and his troops remained sheltered in the covered casements, unable to do much damage to the Confederate gun positions. Finally, when it became obvious to everyone that the fort was going to fall, Anderson signaled his intention to surrender, but before he did, he was going to take advantage of his past relationship with his adversary.
So Anderson ordered his guns to make ready for the salute that Beauregard had promised. Halfway through the observance, however, one heavy gun exploded and killed Private Donald Hough instantly.
During that siege of Fort Sumter, not one soldier lost his life, but in this one act of military courtesy extended by Beauregard to Anderson as he was surrendering his position, Donald Hough was accidently killed by "friendly fire" and became the first man to die in a war that would see the deaths of more than 600,000 other men and boys. In retrospect, it seems a pity, at least for Hough, that his commanding officer was on such friendly terms with the enemy.
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