In “A Con­fi­den­tial Vis­it,” set dur­ing Decem­ber 11–14, Major Ander­son at Fort Moul­trie grap­ples with the ris­ing ten­sions in Charleston har­bor amidst impend­ing con­flict. Capt. Tru­man Sey­mour, an artillery offi­cer and sea­soned vet­er­an, deliv­ers a mem­o­ran­dum to Ander­son, out­lin­ing defen­sive strate­gies against antic­i­pat­ed attacks. He sug­gests that the Car­olini­ans might employ decep­tive tac­tics, such as set­ting fire to a near­by build­ing to divert atten­tion dur­ing an assault. Sey­mour empha­sizes the need for pre­pared­ness, warn­ing that every pre­cau­tion must be tak­en to safe­guard the gar­rison’s hon­or.

Samuel Wylie Craw­ford, the fort’s only doc­tor, shares his con­cern in a let­ter to his broth­er, high­light­ing the rev­o­lu­tion­ary sen­ti­ment in South Car­oli­na. He fore­sees the state’s seces­sion and the like­ly demand for fed­er­al prop­er­ties, includ­ing Fort Moul­trie and Fort Sumter. Despite being new to Moul­trie, Craw­ford notices the esca­lat­ing hos­til­i­ty towards the Union and express­es the sor­row of wit­ness­ing such divi­sion. He believes the time for nego­ti­a­tion has end­ed and that war prepa­ra­tions are nec­es­sary against the “mad Car­olini­ans.”

On Decem­ber 11, Major Ander­son receives a secret vis­it from Assis­tant Adju­tant Gen­er­al Don Car­los Buell, sent by War Sec­re­tary John B. Floyd. Buell con­veys ambigu­ous instruc­tions regard­ing the defense of the forts. While he urges Ander­son to avoid provo­ca­tion that might lead to con­flict, he simul­ta­ne­ous­ly advis­es that he should hold pos­ses­sion and defend the forts if attacked. Floyd’s con­tra­dic­to­ry guid­ance reflects his inter­nal con­flict, acknowl­edg­ing the gar­rison’s lim­it­ed capac­i­ty to pro­tect Fort Sumter, Moul­trie, and Cas­tle Pinck­ney.

Ander­son cau­tions that main­tain­ing secre­cy is increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult due to the charged atmos­phere in Charleston. Even as Buell arrives, the news of the vis­it has already cir­cu­lat­ed, as report­ed by the local press. Despite these chal­lenges, Ander­son assess­es the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion as rel­a­tive­ly calm but pre­pares for poten­tial esca­la­tion, deter­mined to han­dle what­ev­er might unfold next.