Blood and Dis­hon­or unfold­ed in Wash­ing­ton on Decem­ber 27, 1860, as for­mer Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State William Hen­ry Trescot met with Sen­a­tors Jef­fer­son Davis of Mis­sis­sip­pi and R.M.T. Hunter of Vir­ginia to dis­cuss urgent mat­ters. The three rushed to the White House to brief Pres­i­dent Buchanan, who appeared vis­i­bly anx­ious. Trescot observed Buchanan’s ner­vous­ness dur­ing the meet­ing, espe­cial­ly when Buchanan casu­al­ly men­tioned the con­sul in Liv­er­pool, prompt­ing Davis to steer the con­ver­sa­tion toward more press­ing con­cerns. Davis then asked if Buchanan had received any recent news from Charleston, to which Buchanan replied neg­a­tive­ly. It was then that Davis dis­closed the alarm­ing news about Major Anderson’s relo­ca­tion from Fort Moul­trie to Fort Sumter, a move that Davis claimed had sur­round­ed the pres­i­den­cy with “blood and dis­hon­or.” Buchanan, stunned by the rev­e­la­tion, expressed his dis­be­lief and frus­tra­tion, assert­ing that Anderson’s actions con­tra­dict­ed his orders, leav­ing him feel­ing pow­er­less and con­fused.

In response to the mount­ing cri­sis, Sec­re­tary of War Floyd was sum­moned to clar­i­fy the sit­u­a­tion. Floyd, upon hear­ing of Ander­son­’s actions, denied hav­ing received any con­fir­ma­tion through telegrams, cast­ing doubt on the truth of the reports. He insist­ed on con­ven­ing a cab­i­net meet­ing to dis­cuss the mat­ter, which stretched on for sev­er­al days, high­light­ing the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. Dur­ing this tense gath­er­ing, Floyd pre­sent­ed a state­ment that placed blame square­ly on Major Ander­son for vio­lat­ing the gov­ern­men­t’s com­mit­ments. He argued that evac­u­at­ing Fort Sumter was the only way to avoid an esca­lat­ing civ­il con­flict, fram­ing the move as a nec­es­sary step to main­tain peace. This posi­tion, how­ev­er, was met with strong oppo­si­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly from Sec­re­tary of State Jere­mi­ah S. Black, who staunch­ly defend­ed Anderson’s deci­sion as jus­ti­fied. The cab­i­net found itself deeply divid­ed, with Floyd’s sug­ges­tion of with­draw­al viewed by many as an act of sur­ren­der to South Carolina’s demands.

As the debate raged with­in the cab­i­net, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Stan­ton crit­i­cized Floyd’s stance, argu­ing that it would severe­ly dam­age pub­lic trust in the admin­is­tra­tion. Stan­ton point­ed out that yield­ing to South Car­oli­na would not only under­mine the government’s cred­i­bil­i­ty but also result in the loss of both a sig­nif­i­cant fort and an immense finan­cial sum. Mean­while, pres­sure from oth­er quar­ters inten­si­fied as Sen­a­tor Robert Toombs vis­it­ed Buchanan, stress­ing that the sit­u­a­tion at Fort Sumter had seri­ous impli­ca­tions not just for Charleston, but for the entire South. Toombs’ vis­it helped awak­en Buchanan to the sever­i­ty of the cri­sis, mak­ing him real­ize that the actions of Major Ander­son were far from an iso­lat­ed issue. Anderson’s move was hailed as a sym­bol of brav­ery in the North, con­trast­ing sharply with the inac­tion of the admin­is­tra­tion in Wash­ing­ton. Buchanan rec­og­nized that with­draw­ing Ander­son would almost cer­tain­ly pro­voke a pub­lic out­cry, mak­ing it clear that the nation was tee­ter­ing on the brink of a far deep­er con­flict. The cab­i­net, the press, and the pub­lic all weighed in on the unfold­ing cri­sis, each piece of news adding more fuel to the grow­ing fire that would soon lead the coun­try into civ­il war.

The chap­ter paints a vivid pic­ture of the grow­ing divide between the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and the South­ern states, as well as the ris­ing ten­sions that would ulti­mate­ly lead to the Civ­il War. The actions of Major Ander­son, ini­tial­ly seen as a sim­ple mil­i­tary maneu­ver, had far-reach­ing impli­ca­tions that high­light­ed the fail­ure of lead­er­ship in Wash­ing­ton. Pres­i­dent Buchanan, who strug­gled to bal­ance the polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary real­i­ties of the time, found him­self increas­ing­ly iso­lat­ed in his inde­ci­sion. The cab­i­net, divid­ed over the best course of action, reflect­ed the nation’s broad­er strug­gle to rec­on­cile the deep divi­sions over slav­ery and state sov­er­eign­ty. This moment in his­to­ry was a turn­ing point, with Buchanan’s inabil­i­ty to act deci­sive­ly mark­ing a cru­cial moment in the lead-up to the war. As the pres­sure mount­ed, the South’s seces­sion and the North’s resis­tance became increas­ing­ly inevitable, and Fort Sumter stood as the sym­bol­ic flash­point that would soon ignite the flames of war.