The chap­ter titled “Acclaim” delves into the events sur­round­ing the bom­bard­ment and fall of Fort Sumter on April 14–15, a piv­otal moment in Amer­i­can his­to­ry. The pro­tag­o­nist, a jour­nal­ist named Rus­sell, real­izes the enor­mi­ty of the sit­u­a­tion only on that Sun­day as he reflects on the pre­ced­ing night spent aboard the steam­er *Geor­giana*. Rest­less and unable to sleep due to dis­trac­tions and mos­qui­toes, he laments his expe­ri­ence and watch­es pas­sen­gers indulge in cock­tails ear­ly in the morn­ing, not­ing the hos­pi­tal­i­ty of Amer­i­cans.

Upon arriv­ing at Nor­folk, he is greet­ed by jubi­lant voic­es cel­e­brat­ing the news of the Union’s retreat from Fort Sumter. How­ev­er, he also observes some indi­vid­u­als whose expres­sions con­trast sharply with the pre­vail­ing cheers—indicative of deep­er soci­etal divi­sions. Dis­em­bark­ing, Rus­sell finds Nor­folk to have a decayed ambiance, con­trast­ing with the exu­ber­ant cel­e­bra­tions. He describes the Atlantic Hotel as an unkempt place plagued by mos­qui­toes, filled with slack and care­less wait­ers, who were slaves.

Rus­sell is tak­en to a local news­pa­per office where he encoun­ters the cel­e­bra­to­ry tone sur­round­ing the Union defeat. A tele­graph­ic bul­letin exclaims that “The Yan­kees are whipped,” yet Rus­sell feels detached from the excite­ment, fore­see­ing the con­flict ahead. Despite feel­ing out of place, he resolves to con­tin­ue his jour­ney south­ward.

As he nears Charleston, the fer­vor esca­lates, expos­ing vis­cer­al expres­sions of ani­mos­i­ty towards the North and a fer­vent defense of South­ern val­ues, par­tic­u­lar­ly the right to enslave. He notes the emer­gence of the Con­fed­er­ate flag, the “Stars and Bars,” sig­ni­fy­ing a new­ly forged iden­ti­ty. Rus­sell depicts scenes of exu­ber­ance and rev­o­lu­tion­ary zeal along his jour­ney, encap­su­lat­ed by the loud music and chaot­ic atmos­phere he encoun­ters at each stop. He reflects on the broad­er impli­ca­tions of the con­flict, liken­ing Fort Sumter to his­tor­i­cal turn­ing points like the Bastille. His jour­ney cul­mi­nates as he boards a train for the final, most illu­mi­nat­ing leg toward Charleston, where he antic­i­pates the direct ram­i­fi­ca­tions of the unfold­ing war.