Tur­moil in Charleston began on Decem­ber 27, 1860, when Major Ander­son took con­trol of Fort Sumter, prompt­ing Gov­er­nor Fran­cis W. Pick­ens to act swift­ly. Despite the large­ly cer­e­mo­ni­al nature of the gov­er­nor­ship, Pick­ens dis­re­gard­ed objec­tions from the state leg­is­la­ture and ordered the South Car­oli­na mili­tia to seize all remain­ing fed­er­al prop­er­ties in Charleston Har­bor. The first tar­get was Cas­tle Pinck­ney, which was over­tak­en by around 150 mili­tia mem­bers who scaled the fort’s walls to find it near­ly desert­ed, occu­pied only by a lieu­tenant and a few work­ers. The mili­tia raised the pal­met­to flag, a move that deeply upset Kate Skillen, the young daugh­ter of the ord­nance sergeant, who found the sight of the flag a bit­ter sym­bol of change and unrest.

From their posi­tion at Fort Sumter, Anderson’s sol­diers watched with amuse­ment as the mili­tia took over vacant forts. Pvt. John Thomp­son humor­ous­ly com­ment­ed on the val­or dis­played by the mili­tia in cap­tur­ing an unoc­cu­pied fort. Lat­er that evening, the mili­tia also took con­trol of Fort Moul­trie with­out any resis­tance and cap­tured the fed­er­al arse­nal in Charleston, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant shift in the region’s mil­i­tary con­trol. Cap­tain Fos­ter, sta­tioned in the city, report­ed a grow­ing sense of excite­ment and unease among the locals, with some sug­gest­ing that he should leave to avoid incit­ing fur­ther vio­lence. These actions sig­ni­fied a dra­mat­ic esca­la­tion in the con­flict, as fed­er­al prop­er­ties were swift­ly seized, and ten­sions with­in Charleston soared, with the poten­tial for vio­lence loom­ing ever clos­er.

As the sit­u­a­tion in Charleston grew more intense, Mary Ches­nut returned to the city after spend­ing Christ­mas away, reunit­ing with her hus­band James, who was a del­e­gate to the seces­sion con­ven­tion. They took res­i­dence in a well-appoint­ed board­ing house, where news of Anderson’s occu­pa­tion of Fort Sumter fur­ther fueled the grow­ing anx­i­ety. The fear and excite­ment that spread through­out Charleston sparked a wave of urgency in oth­er South­ern states, prompt­ing them to secure fed­er­al prop­er­ties and expe­dite their own seces­sion process­es. Mary, reflect­ing on her upbring­ing in pro-states’ rights house­holds, voiced doubts about the capa­bil­i­ties of South Carolina’s lead­er­ship, crit­i­ciz­ing the old­er gen­er­a­tion of politi­cians in charge. Her per­spec­tive offered a glimpse into the under­ly­ing dis­con­tent with the state’s polit­i­cal estab­lish­ment, as she ques­tioned whether the state’s lead­er­ship could effec­tive­ly nav­i­gate the mount­ing cri­sis.

Ander­son­’s actions, par­tic­u­lar­ly his move to Fort Sumter, sparked out­rage among the South Car­oli­na com­mis­sion­ers in Wash­ing­ton, who viewed his actions as a direct betray­al. They wrote a let­ter to Pres­i­dent Buchanan, demand­ing the imme­di­ate with­draw­al of fed­er­al forces from Charleston Har­bor, argu­ing that Anderson’s pres­ence was hin­der­ing any efforts for peace­ful nego­ti­a­tion. How­ev­er, Buchanan, rec­og­niz­ing the urgency and grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion, refused to com­ply with their demands. He stood firm in his deci­sion not to with­draw the troops, under­stand­ing the broad­er impli­ca­tions of such a move. The dis­cord between the state of South Car­oli­na and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment grew more intense, with com­mis­sion­ers accus­ing Ander­son of wag­ing war on the South, while assert­ing that the state’s actions were mere­ly defen­sive. This series of events made the onset of civ­il war seem increas­ing­ly inevitable, as both sides hard­ened their posi­tions, and any hope for com­pro­mise fad­ed.

The esca­lat­ing ten­sion between South Car­oli­na and the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment set the stage for a dra­mat­ic con­fronta­tion. Anderson’s actions at Fort Sumter were per­ceived by the South as a vio­la­tion of their sov­er­eign­ty, while the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment viewed them as a nec­es­sary asser­tion of con­trol over fed­er­al prop­er­ty. The refusal of Pres­i­dent Buchanan to with­draw fed­er­al forces fur­ther entrenched the divide, sig­nal­ing that nego­ti­a­tions had failed and that a mil­i­tary con­flict was now on the hori­zon. The actions of South Car­oli­na, com­bined with the firm stance of fed­er­al offi­cials, made the path to war seem unavoid­able. As the sit­u­a­tion con­tin­ued to dete­ri­o­rate, both sides braced for the impend­ing con­flict that would soon engulf the nation, with Charleston at the heart of the unfold­ing cri­sis.

In the midst of this tur­bu­lent peri­od, the local pop­u­la­tion of Charleston felt the weight of the grow­ing unrest. The sense of urgency and fear was pal­pa­ble, with both sides prepar­ing for what was expect­ed to be a piv­otal moment in Amer­i­can his­to­ry. The city became a micro­cosm of the larg­er nation­al strug­gle, with fam­i­lies torn between loy­al­ty to the Union and the call for South­ern inde­pen­dence. The divi­sion between fed­er­al author­i­ty and South­ern seces­sion­ists deep­ened, and as the days passed, it became increas­ing­ly clear that the coun­try was head­ed toward a dev­as­tat­ing civ­il war. The deci­sions made dur­ing this crit­i­cal time would shape the future of the Unit­ed States, and Charleston, as the site of Fort Sumter, would soon become the flash­point for the con­flict that would define the nation for years to come.