Activ­i­ty and deter­mi­na­tion were at the fore­front of the increas­ing ten­sions at Fort Sumter in ear­ly March 1861. As Pres­i­dent Lincoln’s inau­gur­al address set the tone for the nation’s future, a notice­able surge in mil­i­tary activ­i­ty around Charleston Har­bor caught the atten­tion of the fort’s defend­ers. The troops sta­tioned at Fort Sumter, unable to access the president’s speech for two days, observed height­ened move­ments and prepa­ra­tions around the sur­round­ing Con­fed­er­ate bat­ter­ies. Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard’s arrival fur­ther inten­si­fied these efforts, as he took com­mand of the defens­es, lead­ing to an accel­er­a­tion of the buildup of forces and artillery. The sense of urgency was pal­pa­ble, and the fort’s lead­er­ship, par­tic­u­lar­ly Cap­tain Fos­ter, close­ly mon­i­tored these devel­op­ments, not­ing the con­sid­er­able increase in troop num­bers and artillery as crit­i­cal fac­tors in the loom­ing con­flict.

Cap­tain Foster’s obser­va­tions of troop move­ments and sup­ply land­ings pro­vid­ed an insight into the grow­ing Con­fed­er­ate prepa­ra­tions. On March 4, three steam­ers arrived at the Iron Bat­tery at Cum­mings Point, deliv­er­ing addi­tion­al sol­diers and cru­cial sup­plies. The sub­se­quent night saw even greater move­ment, with a large force dis­em­bark­ing and nine new can­nons, along with portable “hot shot” fur­naces, brought to rein­force the posi­tion. The pres­ence of so many sol­diers in the area indi­cat­ed a dire lack of shel­ter, as many were seen hud­dled around bivouac fires, try­ing to keep warm amidst a sud­den drop in tem­per­a­ture. Fos­ter, sym­pa­thet­ic to their dis­com­fort, con­veyed these hard­ships while also rec­og­niz­ing the esca­lat­ing readi­ness of the Con­fed­er­ate forces. Despite the cold and harsh con­di­tions, the momen­tum of their prepa­ra­tions sug­gest­ed that the sit­u­a­tion was becom­ing more crit­i­cal by the hour.

Both Cap­tain Fos­ter and Major Ander­son, sta­tioned at Fort Sumter, began to rec­og­nize the shift in atti­tude and resolve of the Con­fed­er­ate forces under Beauregard’s lead­er­ship. Ander­son, famil­iar with Beau­re­gard from his time as a stu­dent, acknowl­edged the increased deter­mi­na­tion and activ­i­ty sur­round­ing the bat­ter­ies. This mutu­al respect between the two men was clear in Anderson’s report to Adju­tant Coop­er, where he high­light­ed the grow­ing sense of urgency in the area. The Con­fed­er­ate forces, now under more capa­ble lead­er­ship, were not just prepar­ing for an even­tu­al attack—they were ready­ing them­selves for a pro­longed siege if nec­es­sary. Anderson’s report paint­ed a pic­ture of a Con­fed­er­ate force that was becom­ing increas­ing­ly res­olute in its goal to for­ti­fy Charleston Har­bor and ensure that Fort Sumter remained under their con­trol.

While Foster’s obser­va­tions con­veyed a height­ened state of readi­ness on the Con­fed­er­ate side, there was still room for cau­tious opti­mism regard­ing some of the threats. One such threat, the feared “float­ing bat­tery,” appeared less for­mi­da­ble after a clos­er exam­i­na­tion. Fos­ter assessed that the float­ing bat­tery, despite its intim­i­dat­ing appear­ance, would not pose a sig­nif­i­cant threat due to its draft and insta­bil­i­ty when loaded with artillery. This assess­ment, which he relayed back to Wash­ing­ton, brought a sense of relief, as it sug­gest­ed that the antic­i­pat­ed chal­lenge might not be as seri­ous as ini­tial­ly feared. This small vic­to­ry, how­ev­er, did lit­tle to ease the over­all ten­sion, as the larg­er pic­ture remained grim, and the con­flict appeared inevitable.

On the Con­fed­er­ate side, Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard faced sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges in prepar­ing his forces for a pos­si­ble siege. While his troops showed promise, Beau­re­gard was con­cerned that they were still not ful­ly orga­nized and lacked the expe­ri­ence need­ed for a pro­longed engage­ment. He rec­og­nized the impor­tance of time and resources to build a sol­id defense, par­tic­u­lar­ly in ensur­ing that Sumter was well-defend­ed against the antic­i­pat­ed assault. In a bid to address these chal­lenges, local planters offered their enslaved work­ers to assist in for­ti­fy­ing the defens­es, pro­vid­ing a tem­po­rary solu­tion to some imme­di­ate logis­ti­cal needs. How­ev­er, Beauregard’s con­fi­dence was tem­pered by the real­i­ty that the Con­fed­er­ate forces, while grow­ing in strength, were still inex­pe­ri­enced and untest­ed in bat­tle. This com­bi­na­tion of opti­mism and con­cern high­light­ed the pre­car­i­ous bal­ance the South faced, as the poten­tial for con­flict loomed large, and the time to pre­pare was rapid­ly run­ning out.