Edmund Ruffin

Edmund Ruffin was an American planter, politician, scientist, and activist best known as an early advocate for secession of the Southern slave states from the United States, who in the three decades before the Civil War published polemics defending states' rights and the protection of chattel slavery, earning notoriety as one of the so-called Fire-Eaters. He is also known for his pioneering work in methods to preserve and improve soil productivity, recommending crop rotation and amendments to restore soils exhausted by tobacco monoculture, and has since become known as the father of soil science in the United States. He was present at the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861 and fired one cannon shot at the fort, giving rise to the legend that he fired the first shot of the Civil War, enlisted as a Confederate soldier despite his advanced age, and died by suicide when the war ended in defeat in 1865 rather than accept what he called Yankee rule. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/