Battle of Fort Sumter
This was the notable military first violence of the Civil War. Fort Sumter was commanded my Major Robert Anderson, a Unionist. South Carolina rebels demanded them to leave and Anderson rejected. President Buchanan sent the Star of the West ship for resupply, which was fired upon by Confederate troops on January 9, 1861 and driven away. The rebel fire was an attempt to provoke war, which Buchanan ignored and instead weathered the rest of his term as presidency.