[1] In the three decades before the American Civil War he published polemics in support of states' rights and the protection of chattel slavery, earning notoriety as one of the so-called Fire-Eaters.

A descendant of William Randolph, he was born into Virginia's planter class aristocracy and inherited large tracts of land along the James River.

His colleagues included Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, George Frederick Holmes, James Henry Hammond, and William Gilmore Simms.

[18] Many in the group argued "stewardship" justified slavery, influenced by the evangelical tradition that generated reform in the North as well, and published their recommendations and "jeremiads" in short-lived periodicals and felt unjustly neglected by fellow Southerners.

Ruffin presented a paper, later expanded into an article for American Farmer and eventually into the highly influential book An Essay on Calcareous Manures (1852).

He explained how applications of calcareous earths (marl) had reduced soil acidity and improved yields of mixed crops of corn and wheat on his land, which had been worn out by two centuries of tobacco farming.

[3] During the pre-war years, Ruffin also studied the origin of bogs and published several detailed descriptions of the Dismal and Blackwater swamps in Virginia.

Some now consider Ruffin better known for his substantive contributions to agriculture, rather than his claim to have fired the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter.

To gain access to the event, Ruffin joined the Virginia Military Institute corps of cadets (from which his son had graduated).

Wearing a borrowed overcoat and carrying a weapon; the aging, white-haired secessionist marched into Charles Town with the young cadets who had been ordered up from Lexington.

Ruffin sent a pike to each of the governors of the slave-holding states, except Delaware, as proof of violent Northern enmity against the South and slavery.

[24] After the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860, Ruffin traveled to South Carolina, where he had previously worked as an agronomist, hoping to encourage secession (perhaps because, as Swanberg says, his fellow Virginians found his views too extreme).

[28][page needed] During the Civil War, his grandson Julian Beckwith was one of the first Petersburg Confederate soldiers to fall during the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862.

In June 1864, after the Army of the Potomac under General Ulysses S. Grant stealthily crossed the James River into Prince George over a hastily constructed pontoon bridge a few miles east of Beechwood at Flowerdew Hundred, Ruffin allegedly escaped capture by hiding under a load of hay in a wagon driven by one of his slaves.

On June 18, 1865, while staying with his son and daughter-in-law at Redmoor in Amelia County, Ruffin went up to his room with a rifle and a forked stick.

[31]: 230 Ruffin wrapped himself in a Confederate flag, put the rifle muzzle in his mouth and used the forked stick to manipulate the trigger.

[31]: 230  Edmund Jr. and neighbor William H. Harrison transported his body to Marlbourne, his plantation in Hanover County, Virginia, for burial.

Nevertheless, the date was drawn into question by his son Edmund Jr.'s June 20 letter advising brothers George and Thomas of the death.

[32] Biographers Allmendinger and Scarborough extensively reviewed Ruffin's diary entries and the son's letter, as well as the circumstances of burial and newspaper publication of the death, and they have debated the case to be made for the 17th and the 18th dates.