Prepa­ra­tions for the loom­ing con­flict were at the fore­front of Major Robert Ander­son­’s mind on Wednes­day, April 10, as the sit­u­a­tion at Fort Sumter became increas­ing­ly dire. The pri­ma­ry con­cern was the dwin­dling food sup­ply, which had forced Ander­son to imple­ment half rations for the gar­ri­son. These rations, he pre­dict­ed, would only last two more days, bare­ly cov­er­ing the peri­od until din­ner­time on April 12. The sol­diers, in an effort to con­serve what lit­tle they had, resort­ed to scav­eng­ing rice from bro­ken win­dow glass that had been left behind from pre­vi­ous events. Assis­tant Sur­geon Craw­ford, in his jour­nal, vivid­ly doc­u­ment­ed the des­per­a­tion felt among the men, who were strug­gling to make do with what was avail­able. The offi­cers, includ­ing Major Ander­son, became high­ly resource­ful, even admon­ish­ing one offi­cer, Dou­ble­day, for wast­ing a sin­gle piece of crack­er. The troops were reduced to a mere crack­er each morn­ing and evening, sup­ple­ment­ed by rice and cof­fee at sup­per. In a moment of unex­pect­ed resource­ful­ness, Dou­ble­day man­aged to save a pota­to that had been inad­ver­tent­ly stepped on, fur­ther high­light­ing the extreme mea­sures tak­en to pre­serve their mea­ger pro­vi­sions.

As the sit­u­a­tion became more tense, Ander­son took proac­tive steps to ensure the safe­ty of his men and pre­pare for the worst. That night, antic­i­pat­ing poten­tial con­flict, he ordered the sol­diers to relo­cate their bed­ding from the bar­racks into the fort’s case­mates. This was a cal­cu­lat­ed move, meant to pro­vide them with more pro­tec­tion should a sud­den attack occur. Mean­while, on the Con­fed­er­ate side, Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard expressed his con­cern regard­ing the arrival of a Union fleet. The over­cast skies and strong winds in the bay made it dif­fi­cult to spot any incom­ing ships, yet Beau­re­gard remained cau­tious. He pre­dict­ed that the tide would rise around eight p.m., which would improve the nav­i­ga­bil­i­ty of Charleston’s har­bor, poten­tial­ly allow­ing the Union fleet to approach the fort under the cov­er of dark­ness. The Con­fed­er­ate forces were clear­ly prepar­ing for a con­fronta­tion, and every avail­able resource was being uti­lized to for­ti­fy their defens­es.

In an effort to pre­vent any Union fleet from reach­ing the fort, a team of sol­diers and enslaved indi­vid­u­als worked to fill three out­dat­ed ves­sels with flam­ma­ble mate­ri­als. These ves­sels were placed strate­gi­cal­ly in a chan­nel near Fort Sumter, where they could block the path of ene­my ships. The plan was to ignite the ves­sels should the Union ships approach, using them to light up the chan­nel and obstruct the advanc­ing fleet. This was a last-ditch effort to stop the ene­my from com­ing clos­er, pro­vid­ing the Con­fed­er­a­cy with a tac­ti­cal advan­tage and poten­tial­ly buy­ing valu­able time. The sol­diers, know­ing the odds were stacked against them, worked dili­gent­ly to exe­cute these plans, ful­ly aware that any mis­step could lead to a swift and bru­tal con­fronta­tion.

This chap­ter high­lights the des­per­a­tion and urgency felt by Major Ander­son and his men at Fort Sumter. The scarci­ty of resources, par­tic­u­lar­ly food, under­scored the dire con­di­tions under which they oper­at­ed. The prepa­ra­tions were fraught with uncer­tain­ty, as nei­ther side knew when or where the attack would occur, mak­ing every deci­sion feel like a mat­ter of life and death. Despite the lack of resources, Anderson’s lead­er­ship and abil­i­ty to adapt to the cir­cum­stances ensured that his men were ready for what­ev­er lay ahead. At the same time, the Con­fed­er­ate forces were equal­ly engaged in prepar­ing for bat­tle, dri­ven by their own set of chal­lenges and strate­gies to defend Charleston. Both sides, caught in a tense stand­off, knew that the actions tak­en in these final hours would set the stage for what was to come, mark­ing the begin­ning of the Civ­il War.

This peri­od before the actu­al attack at Fort Sumter was char­ac­ter­ized by a high lev­el of anx­i­ety and uncer­tain­ty. Both sides under­stood that the next steps would deter­mine the out­come of the con­fronta­tion, with every resource being used to pre­pare for war. Anderson’s care­ful rationing of food and his tac­ti­cal moves to safe­guard his men reflect­ed the weight of respon­si­bil­i­ty he bore. Sim­i­lar­ly, Beauregard’s strate­gic place­ment of the flam­ma­ble ves­sels in Charleston Har­bor revealed the Con­fed­er­ate com­mit­ment to block­ing any Union advance. As both sides read­ied them­selves for bat­tle, it was clear that this was more than just a mil­i­tary con­flict; it was a test of endurance, resource­ful­ness, and resolve, with the fate of the nation hang­ing in the bal­ance.