Star of the West
Contemporaneous wood engraving of Star of the West | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Owner |
|
| Operator | U.S. Department of War (1861–) |
| Builder | Jeremiah Simonson |
| Launched | 17 June 1852 |
| Fate | Sunk |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Steamship |
| Tonnage | 1,172 tons |
| Length | 228.3 ft (69.6 m) |
| Beam | 32.7 ft (10.0 m) |
| Propulsion | Paddlewheels |
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- Northwest Ordinance (1787)
- Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (1798–99)
- End of Atlantic slave trade
- Missouri Compromise (1820)
- Tariff of 1828
- Nat Turner's Rebellion (1831)
- Nullification crisis (1832–33)
- Abolition of slavery in the British Empire (1834)
- Texas Revolution (1835–36)
- United States v. Crandall (1836)
- Gag rule (1836–44)
- Commonwealth v. Aves (1836)
- Murder of Elijah Lovejoy (1837)
- Burning of Pennsylvania Hall (1838)
- American Slavery As It Is (1839)
- United States v. The Amistad (1841)
- Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)
- Texas annexation (1845)
- Mexican–American War (1846–48)
- Wilmot Proviso (1846)
- Nashville Convention (1850)
- Compromise of 1850
- Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
- Recapture of Anthony Burns (1854)
- Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854)
- Ostend Manifesto (1854)
- Bleeding Kansas (1854–61)
- Caning of Charles Sumner (1856)
- Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
- The Impending Crisis of the South (1857)
- Panic of 1857
- Lincoln–Douglas debates (1858)
- Oberlin–Wellington Rescue (1858)
- John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry (1859)
- Virginia v. John Brown (1859)
- 1860 presidential election
- Crittenden Compromise (1860)
- Secession of Southern states (1860–61)
- Peace Conference of 1861
- Corwin Amendment (1861)
- Battle of Fort Sumter (1861)
Star of the West was an American merchant steamship that was launched in 1852 and scuttled by Confederate forces in 1863. In January 1861, the ship was hired by the government of the United States to transport military supplies and reinforcements to the U.S. military garrison of Fort Sumter. A battery on Morris Island, South Carolina handled by cadets from the South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel) fired upon the ship, considered by some scholars to have been effectively the first shots fired in the American Civil War.
The ship was later captured by Confederate forces, then used for several purposes including as a hospital ship and a blockade runner, and finally scuttled in defense of Vicksburg in 1863.