On April 9, Mary Ches­nut, despite suf­fer­ing from a bad cold, was get­ting ready to head back to Mul­ber­ry plan­ta­tion. Ini­tial­ly reluc­tant to leave her home, a vis­it from her friend Robert Gour­din prompt­ed her to change her mind. Dur­ing their con­ver­sa­tion, John Man­ning entered dra­mat­i­cal­ly, pro­claim­ing, “Madam your coun­try is invad­ed.” He claimed that six war­ships were lurk­ing out­side the bar, while mes­sen­gers Tal­bot and Chew brought news of immi­nent war. How­ev­er, this alarm­ing announce­ment regard­ing the war­ships was based on a mis­un­der­stand­ing, main­ly fueled by poor vis­i­bil­i­ty due to a storm.

Mary quick­ly shared the news with Mr. C, who con­firmed it, adding to the atmos­phere of unrest. The sit­u­a­tion was fur­ther height­ened when Wig­fall arrived quot­ing Byron’s work, adding a poet­ic touch to the chaot­ic atmos­phere. Mary observed the grow­ing con­fu­sion, her heart rac­ing, as she and Mrs. W retreat­ed to her room, where they lament­ed the hor­rors of a poten­tial Civ­il War. Their anx­ious dis­cus­sion was cut short as can­non fire echoed in the dis­tance, accom­pa­nied by shouts.

By 11 p.m., heavy rain fell, and the sound of six can­non blasts pierced through the town, caus­ing fear to grip the cit­i­zens. Mary encoun­tered Mrs. Allen Green, who appeared vis­i­bly shak­en. For­mer gov­er­nor John Means approached Mary, inform­ing her that Gov­er­nor Pick­ens had ordered sev­en can­non blasts to sum­mon the 17th reg­i­ment, of which he was a colonel. This thun­der­ous com­mu­ni­ca­tion was intend­ed to mobi­lize the reg­i­ment for board­ing steam­ers that would take them to Mor­ris Island in antic­i­pa­tion of a pre­sumed Union assault.

The sit­u­a­tion was tense, with sev­en can­non announc­ing the sol­diers’ resilience amidst the threats of Union ships rumored to be wait­ing to strike. “Of course no sleep for me last night,” Mary not­ed, reflect­ing on the chaos of shout­ing and march­ing sol­diers in the streets. Mean­while, Edmund Ruf­fin, sta­tioned in a tent on Mor­ris Island, remarked on the height­ened excite­ment among the city’s inhab­i­tants, con­tem­plat­ing the impend­ing con­flict that loomed over them all.