The General consented at once, and the old man pulled the lanyard.
There was a terrific crash that almost deafened Harry, a gush of flame, followed by smoke, and a shell, screaming in a curve, dropped upon Sumter.

For a few moments no one spoke, and Harry could hear the blood pounding in his ears.

In a sudden flash of insight he saw a long and terrible road that they must tread.

But neither he nor any other present realized to the full what had happened.

The first real shot in the mightiest war of history had been fired, and the years of promises, kept or broken, of mutual jealousies and mutual abuse had ended at the cannon's mouth.
The silence was broken by a shout like the roar of a storm, that came from the people in the town.