The Great Dark­ness takes place on the after­noon of April 12, as Pri­vate Thomp­son, sta­tioned at Fort Sumter, observes the arrival of a third steamship join­ing the two that had been anchored off the coast since the ear­ly hours of the morn­ing. This sight ini­tial­ly rais­es the spir­its of the fort’s gar­ri­son, as they are hope­ful that the ships are part of a much-need­ed relief expe­di­tion. How­ev­er, as time pass­es and the ships remain unmov­ing, their ini­tial hopes begin to wane, lead­ing Thomp­son to believe that the ves­sels will like­ly wait until night­fall to make any sig­nif­i­cant moves. The ten­sion in the fort is pal­pa­ble, with the men anx­ious­ly watch­ing the ships, unsure of whether they bring sal­va­tion or the fore­bod­ing pres­ence of an incom­ing attack. The atmos­phere grows heavy as the wait­ing game con­tin­ues, and the sol­diers find them­selves stuck in a moment of uncer­tain­ty, unsure how to react to the loom­ing threat in the dis­tance.

Con­fed­er­ate scouts quick­ly iden­ti­fy the ships, reveal­ing that two of them are warships—the Pawnee and the Har­ri­et Lane—while the third ves­sel, the Baltic, appears to be car­ry­ing row­boats for the land­ing of troops. Mean­while, Con­fed­er­ate offi­cer Edmund Ruf­fin takes note of the dam­age to Fort Sumter, observ­ing that, while the fort had tak­en some hits from artillery fire, the dam­age was not as severe as expect­ed. The fort’s walls had only minor breach­es, indi­cat­ing that, despite the bom­bard­ment, the fort had held up well under pres­sure. On the Union side, how­ev­er, the return fire from the fort is large­ly inef­fec­tive, with most of the can­non­balls either miss­ing their tar­get or being deflect­ed by the Con­fed­er­ate Iron Bat­tery. This high­lights the frus­trat­ing impo­tence of the fed­er­al forces, who are unable to gain any real advan­tage despite their best efforts, leav­ing them at a dis­ad­van­tage and con­tribut­ing to the grow­ing ten­sion on both sides of the con­flict.

As night begins to set­tle over the area, anx­i­ety mounts on both sides, with the Union and Con­fed­er­ate forces await­ing the other’s next move. The Con­fed­er­ate sol­diers begin to mock the inac­tion of the fed­er­al fleet, watch­ing as the ships remain sta­tion­ary on the hori­zon, while the spo­radic sounds of shelling con­tin­ue to echo in the back­ground. Ruf­fin, unable to sleep due to the mount­ing ten­sion, steps out­side into the dark­ness to observe the activ­i­ty unfold­ing. At approx­i­mate­ly 12:30 a.m., he is star­tled by the sud­den sound of gun­fire, which caus­es him to fear that the fed­er­al forces may attempt a land­ing oper­a­tion. How­ev­er, the lack of clar­i­ty in the night and the con­fu­sion of the moment leave Ruf­fin uncer­tain about the true nature of the threat, adding to the sense of dis­ori­en­ta­tion and fear that per­vades the scene.

In the ear­ly hours of the morn­ing, chaos erupts when a small boat with two pas­sen­gers makes its way to the beach, only to be met with Con­fed­er­ate artillery fire. The occu­pants of the boat claim to be “friends” from the South­ern Con­fed­er­a­cy, but it quick­ly becomes clear that the men are dis­ori­ent­ed and intox­i­cat­ed. They had intend­ed to trans­port guards­men, but in their state, they had become lost in the midst of the con­fu­sion and dan­ger sur­round­ing them. The sit­u­a­tion grows more con­fus­ing as the two men are appre­hend­ed, and the true nature of their mis­sion becomes clear. This event adds yet anoth­er lay­er of chaos to an already tense sit­u­a­tion, with both sides still uncer­tain about what to expect next. Mean­while, the guns of Fort Sumter remain silent, and the spo­radic Con­fed­er­ate artillery fire con­tin­ues to rever­ber­ate in the dis­tance, keep­ing both the Union and Con­fed­er­ate forces on edge.

The jux­ta­po­si­tion of the weary sol­diers inside Fort Sumter and the fed­er­al ships, shroud­ed in the mys­tery of dark­ness, cre­ates an air of intense uncer­tain­ty. The chap­ter mas­ter­ful­ly por­trays the ten­sion and antic­i­pa­tion that gripped both sides as they wait­ed for some form of res­o­lu­tion or action. As the sol­diers inside the fort con­tin­ue to hold their posi­tions, unsure of when or if relief will arrive, the uncer­tain­ty only grows. The emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal strain on the sol­diers is evi­dent, and the loom­ing threat of war­fare grows ever clos­er. The Great Dark­ness, as described in the chap­ter, becomes a pow­er­ful metaphor for the con­fu­sion, fear, and over­whelm­ing uncer­tain­ty that engulfed both the sol­diers on the front lines and those observ­ing the con­flict from afar. The chap­ter ends with both sides still trapped in a state of wait­ing, with the out­come of the con­flict hang­ing in the bal­ance. The great dark­ness of war envelops them, offer­ing no answers, only the promise of impend­ing vio­lence and chaos.