A Toast marks a piv­otal moment in Amer­i­can his­to­ry, begin­ning with the cer­e­mo­ny on April 14, 1865, when Pres­i­dent Abra­ham Lincoln’s flag-rais­ing at Fort Sumter sym­bol­ized the nation’s recov­ery from the Civ­il War. This event occurred exact­ly four years after the fort had fall­en under Con­fed­er­ate con­trol, and four years after its evac­u­a­tion by its orig­i­nal com­man­der, Major Robert Ander­son. Despite Ander­son­’s desire for a low-key obser­vance, Sec­re­tary of War Edwin Stan­ton orches­trat­ed a grand pub­lic spec­ta­cle, attend­ed by thou­sands, show­cas­ing the dra­mat­ic con­trast between per­son­al grief and nation­al cel­e­bra­tion. As the war end­ed with Gen­er­al Lee’s sur­ren­der and the South reeled from its stag­ger­ing loss­es, this moment marked a cli­mac­tic point in the Civ­il War’s after­math, offer­ing the coun­try a bit­ter­sweet sense of clo­sure.

The impact of the Civ­il War on the Unit­ed States was pro­found, with around 750,000 lives lost, and South Car­oli­na alone mourn­ing 21,000 fatal­i­ties. This stag­ger­ing death toll, cou­pled with the finan­cial dev­as­ta­tion of slavery’s abo­li­tion, meant that the South’s econ­o­my was left in tat­ters. On the day of the cer­e­mo­ny, Fort Sumter itself stood as a sym­bol of this dev­as­ta­tion, reduced to rub­ble after years of siege. Yet, the flag-rais­ing rep­re­sent­ed more than just a memo­r­i­al; it sym­bol­ized a new begin­ning for a frac­tured nation. Notable fig­ures such as abo­li­tion­ists Hen­ry Ward Beech­er and William Lloyd Gar­ri­son, who had fought for free­dom and equal­i­ty, attend­ed the event, empha­siz­ing the occasion’s impor­tance. The cer­e­mo­ny itself was filled with prayers and scrip­ture read­ings, empha­siz­ing the sac­ri­fices made on both sides of the con­flict.

As Major Robert Ander­son pre­pared to raise the flag, his emo­tions were pal­pa­ble. The years of hard­ship, loss, and the dev­as­tat­ing toll of war had clear­ly weighed heav­i­ly on him. The event unfold­ed with much fan­fare, as bleach­ers filled with spec­ta­tors and flo­ral trib­utes adorned the flag, a sym­bol of remem­brance and hope. The flag was even­tu­al­ly hoist­ed, accom­pa­nied by cheers and a gun salute, sig­nal­ing a sense of clo­sure for a nation torn apart by war. It was a defin­ing moment for the coun­try, offer­ing a glimpse of uni­ty and the pos­si­bil­i­ty of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, even in the face of immense loss. Yet, as the evening wore on, the cel­e­bra­tions were tem­pered by a trag­ic twist of fate. Ander­son pro­posed a toast in hon­or of Pres­i­dent Lin­coln, unaware that Lin­coln had been fatal­ly shot at Ford’s The­ater in Wash­ing­ton just moments ear­li­er.

This coin­ci­dence, where the nation’s hopes for peace were crushed by the assas­si­na­tion of its leader, left a shad­ow over the night’s events. John Nico­lay, a close asso­ciate of Lin­coln, felt an over­whelm­ing sense of regret for not being in Wash­ing­ton, think­ing that his pres­ence might have made a dif­fer­ence. The joy­ful atmos­phere of the cer­e­mo­ny, intend­ed to mark the end of one of the dark­est chap­ters in Amer­i­can his­to­ry, was sud­den­ly over­shad­owed by an unimag­in­able tragedy. As the nation mourned the loss of its pres­i­dent, the cel­e­bra­to­ry toasts and cheers gave way to grief, as Lincoln’s assas­si­na­tion became a trag­ic reminder of the ongo­ing strife and uncer­tain­ty that lay ahead.

The chap­ter encap­su­lates the para­dox of vic­to­ry and loss, of a nation emerg­ing from the rav­ages of war only to face an uncer­tain future. The themes of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and heal­ing are tight­ly inter­wo­ven with the reminder of how frag­ile peace can be. As the nation tried to rebuild itself, the loss of its leader inject­ed a lay­er of com­plex­i­ty into the jour­ney toward heal­ing. This chap­ter reveals how close­ly linked the themes of joy and tragedy can be, shap­ing the his­to­ry of a coun­try that was only begin­ning to come to terms with its past. The impact of Lincoln’s assas­si­na­tion, com­ing so soon after the Civ­il War, would con­tin­ue to rever­ber­ate through­out the nation, alter­ing the course of its his­to­ry and leav­ing its cit­i­zens to reflect on the true cost of war and peace.