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Incident occurred 150 years ago on Jan. 9, 1861

BY STEVEN GLAZER

NEW JERSEY CIVIL WAR SESQUICENTENNIAL COMMITTEE

To most Americans, the sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War begins on April 12, the date 150 years ago when Confederate artillery opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C. Although this is the story we were taught in school, in fact, more than three months earlier, a 55-year-old New Jersey sea captain drew the first rebellious Southern fire.

With the advent of the New Year of 1861, lame-duck president James Buchanan was under pressure to relieve Fort Sumter, its federal garrison cut off from resupply and reinforcement by South Carolina, which had seceded from the Union only days earlier. Fearful that the beleaguered garrison might not hold out until president-elect Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, Buchanan secretly dispatched the steamer Star of the West, commanded by Capt. John McGowan of Elizabeth to accomplish the task.

At sunrise on Jan. 9, 1861, the Star of the West, carrying 200 troops below decks, steamed into the mouth of Charleston Harbor heading for the federal fort.

The first shot flew across the bow of the U.S.-flagged ship. McGowan, a seasoned veteran of previous conflicts, steamed ahead, defiantly yelling out, "You will need bigger guns than that, boys!"

However, when several succeeding rounds hit his ship, McGowan, fearing for the safety of the troops and his unarmed vessel, reluctantly aborted the mission and returned to New York.

In the following days, newspapers in the South widely celebrated the first shots fired by South Carolina against Northern "tyranny," while those in the North decried the treasonous acts of the Southern secessionists against the Union.

McGowan went on to fight the Confederacy until the end of the Civil War. And when he died at his longtime Union County home 30 years later, newspapers around the country mourned the death of the man from New Jersey who was the target of "the first shots of the Rebellion."

Nevertheless, few people today are aware of McGowan's ill-fated mission; fewer still know a Jersey man was on the receiving end of the first shots fired by the South against the Union.

As the 150th anniversary of Capt. McGowan's voyage to Fort Sumter nears, the New Jersey Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee of the New Jersey Civil War Heritage Association hopes to restore his tombstone in Evergreen Cemetery in Hillside.