The sound of hoarse thunder disrupted the "glorious autumn morn," sending hundreds of Charleston residents running from their shops and homes toward The Battery.
It was a sound not unlike the report of guns that announced the bombardment of Fort Sumter nearly seven months earlier, and many locals worried that the city was under attack.
But on the waterfront they saw nothing but calm forts, and the crowds soon dispersed. A few of the more anxious and curious retreated to the Broad Street office of The Mercury to await the news coming in from telegraph that Thursday morning, Nov. 7, 1861.
The gunfire was "no hoax, but grim reality," the paper reported the next day. Although "plainly audible" in downtown Charleston, it had actually carried up the coast nearly 50 miles.
Via Jamey, SDYC
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