A Ball at Sun­rise began on the morn­ing of March 8, with Con­fed­er­ate artillery sta­tioned at Fort Moul­trie and Cum­mings Point fir­ing their guns, ini­tial­ly seem­ing to be part of a rou­tine prac­tice drill. The first three shots fired were blanks, cre­at­ing no harm or con­cern, but the sub­se­quent rounds unex­pect­ed­ly includ­ed a live can­non­ball. This shot trav­eled dan­ger­ous­ly close to Fort Sumter, strik­ing the water about thir­ty yards away and ric­o­chet­ing off the sur­face, caus­ing dam­age to the fort’s wharf. This sud­den dis­rup­tion spurred an imme­di­ate response from the guards at the fort, who were already on high alert for any sign of aggres­sion. The ric­o­chet from the can­non­ball fur­ther inten­si­fied the sense of urgency and dread, quick­ly esca­lat­ing a seem­ing­ly inno­cent drill into a more dan­ger­ous sce­nario.

The con­fu­sion caused by the cannonball’s impact imme­di­ate­ly reached the sol­diers at Fort Sumter, one of whom was a Ger­man-born sol­dier. He swift­ly closed the main gate, trig­ger­ing an alarm that sent the gun­nery teams rush­ing to their posts. The loud long roll echoed across the fort, a call to action that sig­ni­fied the readi­ness of the sol­diers for a poten­tial attack. Assis­tant Sur­geon Crawford’s jour­nal entry from that day pro­vides a vivid account of the chaos and ten­sion that unfold­ed. Major Ander­son, along with oth­er offi­cers, took up posi­tions on the para­pet of the fort, observ­ing the Con­fed­er­ate sol­diers’ errat­ic behav­ior. In a pan­ic, the Con­fed­er­ate gun­ners fled from their posi­tions, aban­don­ing their equip­ment and hors­es in their attempt to escape the threat of retal­i­a­tion. Their sud­den retreat was a strik­ing dis­play of fear, con­trast­ing sharply with the com­posed response from Fort Sumter’s defend­ers.

Despite the ini­tial pan­ic, Ander­son rec­og­nized that the can­non­bal­l’s flight had been an acci­dent and made the deci­sion not to return fire. The sol­diers with­in Fort Sumter, once braced for bat­tle, were soon able to laugh at the sit­u­a­tion, as the ten­sion began to dis­si­pate. The inci­dent was swift­ly reduced to a minor set­back in the dai­ly oper­a­tions of the fort. How­ev­er, Ander­son remained res­olute in seek­ing an apol­o­gy for the mis­fire, sig­nal­ing that although the response was light­heart­ed, there was still a desire for for­mal acknowl­edg­ment of the mishap. The res­o­lu­tion came lat­er that morn­ing when a Con­fed­er­ate boat arrived, bring­ing Major Peter F. Stevens under a flag of truce. Stevens deliv­ered an expla­na­tion for the cannonball’s acci­den­tal dis­charge, admit­ting that a load­ing error dur­ing a rou­tine drill had caused the mishap. The dia­logue between Stevens and Ander­son remained civ­il, with both men express­ing their desire to avoid fur­ther con­flict, despite the under­ly­ing ten­sions.

Although the meet­ing between Stevens and Ander­son was cor­dial, Cap­tain Dou­ble­day and oth­ers with­in the fort were less patient, eager for a more deci­sive response to the per­ceived aggres­sion. They were ready to engage, reflect­ing the more aggres­sive stance some with­in Fort Sumter were will­ing to take. Despite this, Ander­son remained diplo­mat­ic, care­ful not to esca­late the sit­u­a­tion fur­ther. He was mind­ful that a rash response could lead to an open con­flict that might spi­ral out of con­trol. When Stevens depart­ed, he expressed hope that the inci­dent would be a sin­gu­lar occur­rence, an unfor­tu­nate mis­take that could be for­got­ten. How­ev­er, Ander­son sub­tly acknowl­edged that the can­non­ball had indeed come dan­ger­ous­ly close to caus­ing seri­ous dam­age, even though, upon reflec­tion, it had not struck the fort direct­ly. Lat­er reflec­tions by Craw­ford would reveal that the sit­u­a­tion could have been far more cat­a­stroph­ic, fur­ther empha­siz­ing the del­i­cate bal­ance Ander­son sought to main­tain dur­ing such a tense peri­od. The inci­dent high­light­ed the thin line between peace and con­flict and under­scored the pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion at Fort Sumter in the days lead­ing up to the Civ­il War.