Early on an April morning in 1861 the residents of Charleston, South Carolina, waited with baited breath. Then, the sound of a cannon being fired was heard. Swiftly, the reports of other artillery pieces could be discerned. The shelling of Fort Sumter, so anticipated with joy or dread by so many people, had begun. With the firing of those shots the die was cast and America began its long and bloody journey down the trail of civil war. Looking back at the still emerging course of American history, it is difficult to imagine a more compelling turning point than the firing on Fort Sumter.