In the chap­ter titled “Activ­i­ty and Deter­mi­na­tion,” set on March 5, the atmos­phere sur­round­ing Fort Sumter reflects an increas­ing urgency and prepa­ra­tion amidst the esca­lat­ing ten­sions of the Civ­il War. The men sta­tioned at Fort Sumter, unable to access Lin­col­n’s inau­gur­al address for two days, observe a notable uptick in activ­i­ty at the sur­round­ing bat­ter­ies in Charleston Har­bor. This height­ened activ­i­ty is attrib­uted to both the pres­i­den­t’s speech and the arrival of Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard, who is tasked with orga­niz­ing defens­es.

Cap­tain Fos­ter, mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion from Fort Sumter, sees three steam­ers deliv­er­ing troops and sup­plies to the Iron Bat­tery at Cum­mings Point on March 4. On the fol­low­ing night, he notes the land­ing of a large force along­side the arrival of nine new can­non and portable “hot shot” fur­naces, which are designed to heat can­non­balls. The sheer num­ber of sol­diers sug­gests a short­age of shel­ter, with many gath­ered around bivouac fires, evi­denc­ing their dis­com­fort as the weath­er abrupt­ly turns cold. Fos­ter express­es sym­pa­thy for their plight, as con­di­tions become harsh.

Both Fos­ter and Major Ander­son per­ceive a change in the deter­mi­na­tion and urgency at the Car­oli­na bat­ter­ies, now under the capa­ble com­mand of Beau­re­gard, whom Ander­son knows per­son­al­ly as a for­mer stu­dent. The mutu­al respect between the two men is evi­dent, reflect­ed in Ander­son­’s report to Adju­tant Coop­er about the “activ­i­ty and deter­mi­na­tion” in the area.

Despite these con­cerns, Fos­ter har­bors a small sense of relief upon deter­min­ing that a much-feared “float­ing bat­tery” may not be as threat­en­ing as believed, due to its draft and insta­bil­i­ty when loaded. He con­veys this assess­ment back to Wash­ing­ton, express­ing con­fi­dence that the float­ing bat­tery will not pose sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges.

On the Con­fed­er­ate side, Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard express­es the urgency of gath­er­ing enough artillery and pow­der for a poten­tial siege while prepar­ing his troops, which he feels are not yet ful­ly orga­nized. Beau­re­gard believes if Sumter were well-defend­ed, it could with­stand con­tin­u­ous attacks. He stress­es the impor­tance of time to ready his forces. The local planters, dri­ven by a sense of duty, offer their enslaved work­ers to assist in for­ti­fy­ing the defens­es, mit­i­gat­ing some imme­di­ate chal­lenges. How­ev­er, there remains a pre­car­i­ous ten­sion that risks ignit­ing con­flict at any moment giv­en the inex­pe­ri­ence of the forces involved.