In “Any Minute Now, The Demon of Unrest,” we find our­selves sit­u­at­ed at Fort Sumter dur­ing ear­ly April. The atmos­phere is fraught with ten­sion as Major Robert Ander­son antic­i­pates an order from Wash­ing­ton to vacate the fort. While he is pre­pared to engage in bat­tle if nec­es­sary, he has also come to the reluc­tant con­clu­sion that aban­don­ing the fort might be the best way to pre­vent vio­lence. How­ev­er, Ander­son feels he lacks the author­i­ty to make that deci­sion alone, fear­ing that a sur­ren­der could impugn his loy­al­ty and equate him with Gen­er­al Twig­gs, who had capit­u­lat­ed all fed­er­al posi­tions in Texas.

On April 1, Ander­son reports the sit­u­a­tion at the fort to Col. Loren­zo Thomas, the new adju­tant gen­er­al. Mist obscures the sur­round­ing area, reduc­ing vis­i­bil­i­ty and height­en­ing feel­ings of iso­la­tion among the gar­ri­son, which Ander­son describes as an “impris­on­ment.” He updates Thomas on dwin­dling food sup­plies, stat­ing that unless Gov­er­nor Pick­ens allows civil­ian labor­ers to leave the fort, pro­vi­sions could run out by April 8. Ten­sions mount as Pick­ens restricts the flow of food sup­plies, turn­ing the atmos­phere increas­ing­ly des­per­ate.

On April 3, Cap­tain Joseph Marts, aboard the schooner *Rho­da H. Shan­non*, mis­tak­en­ly enters Charleston Har­bor instead of the Savan­nah Riv­er due to poor vis­i­bil­i­ty. His arrival trig­gers artillery fire from the near­by forts, prompt­ing him to attempt to nav­i­gate back while under fire. Mean­while, Cap­tain Ander­son remains restrained in his response, send­ing offi­cers to seek clar­i­fi­ca­tion from Con­fed­er­ate offi­cials instead of retal­i­at­ing. This restraint, while intend­ed to pre­vent con­flict, begins to demor­al­ize the fort’s gar­ri­son, with some ques­tion­ing Anderson’s lead­er­ship.

The day’s events inspire spec­u­la­tion among Charleston cit­i­zens, as rumors swirl about poten­tial North­ern actions and the fate of Fort Sumter. Louis Wig­fall deliv­ers a speech at the Mills House hotel, con­fi­dent­ly declar­ing that war with the North is immi­nent. His dra­mat­ic rhetoric cap­tures the anx­i­ety and antic­i­pa­tion run­ning through the city, espe­cial­ly among those like Mary Ches­nut, who mus­es on the unset­tling pos­si­bil­i­ty that a naval attack could occur at any moment. The chap­ter clos­es empha­siz­ing the pre­vail­ing unease as indi­vid­u­als await the inevitable clash, with ten­sion lin­ger­ing in every inter­ac­tion.