Abner Doubleday was an 1842 graduate of the U. S. Military Academy at West Point and a veteran of the Mexican war when he was assigned to Fort Moultrie in the summer of 1860. A Captain of Artillery, he served as second in command of the garrison at the historic fort when the curtain rose on the dramatic events leading to the outbreak of the War Between the States. Doubleday also had the distinction of aiming the first cannon fired in response to the bombardment of Fort Sumter.