### Sum­ma­ry of “A Toast, The Demon of Unrest”

On April 14, 1865, Pres­i­dent Lin­coln sought to raise the Amer­i­can flag over Fort Sumter, four years after it had fall­en under Con­fed­er­ate fire. The cer­e­mo­ny was set exact­ly four years after the fort’s evac­u­a­tion by its com­man­der, Robert Ander­son, who was approached by Sec­re­tary of War Edwin Stan­ton to over­see the flag-rais­ing. Despite Ander­son­’s desire for a sim­ple com­mem­o­ra­tion of loss, Stan­ton orches­trat­ed a grand pub­lic event attend­ed by thou­sands, mark­ing a cli­mac­tic moment in the Civ­il War’s after­math.

As the nation healed from the war, with Gen­er­al Lee’s sur­ren­der just days pri­or, the loss was pal­pa­ble. The war claimed 750,000 lives, with South Car­oli­na alone mourn­ing 21,000 fatal­i­ties among its fight­ers. The end of slav­ery also dealt a sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial blow to South­ern planters, cost­ing them sig­nif­i­cant­ly in human cap­i­tal. On the day of the cer­e­mo­ny, the fort resem­bled a shat­tered mon­u­ment, reduced to rub­ble by years of con­flict.

Atten­dees includ­ed notable fig­ures such as abo­li­tion­ists Hen­ry Ward Beech­er and William Lloyd Gar­ri­son, who arrived via steamships to hon­or the occa­sion. The cer­e­mo­ny began with prayer and scrip­ture read­ings, acknowl­edg­ing the sac­ri­fices on both sides. Major Gen­er­al Abn­er Dou­ble­day, a sur­vivor of the orig­i­nal gar­ri­son, was present, rem­i­nisc­ing about those tumul­tuous years.

Ander­son­’s emo­tion­al state dur­ing the event was not­ed; the hard­ships of the past years weighed heav­i­ly on him as he pre­pared to raise the flag. The cer­e­mo­ny unfold­ed with much fanfare—bleachers were filled, and the flag was adorned with flo­ral trib­utes before being hoist­ed amidst cheers and gun salutes. The moment res­onat­ed deeply, offer­ing a sense of clo­sure and unity—a turn­ing of the page for a nation bruised by con­flict.

That evening, in Charleston, trib­utes con­tin­ued in a cel­e­bra­to­ry din­ner. Ander­son pro­posed a toast to Lin­coln, unaware that the Pres­i­dent was fatal­ly wound­ed at Ford’s The­ater at that very moment. This stark coin­ci­dence haunt­ed atten­dees, par­tic­u­lar­ly John Nico­lay, who felt a heavy sense of regret for not being in Wash­ing­ton to pos­si­bly avert the tragedy.

As the nation cel­e­brat­ed, the loom­ing shad­ow of Lin­col­n’s assas­si­na­tion cast a pall over the new­found peace, inter­twin­ing the themes of vic­to­ry and loss against the back­drop of a frac­tured nation mov­ing toward rec­on­cil­i­a­tion.