In the chap­ter titled “Con­fu­sion,” set in Charleston on April 11, Beau­re­gard faced sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges as he pre­pared for an immi­nent con­flict against Fort Sumter. Despite the excite­ment, he was unpre­pared for war, hin­dered by a short­age of gun­pow­der after recent vig­or­ous dis­plays. With only enough pow­der to sus­tain a few hours of fire, he await­ed a fresh sup­ply due that night from Augus­ta, Geor­gia, which required care­ful trans­port through an area vul­ner­a­ble to ene­my fire.

Beau­re­gard’s dif­fi­cul­ties were com­pound­ed by the inex­pe­ri­ence of his offi­cers and troops. Many came from pres­ti­gious local fam­i­lies but were untrained vol­un­teers lack­ing prop­er coor­di­na­tion. As more troops, expect­ed to num­ber around three thou­sand, flood­ed in, Beau­re­gard com­mu­ni­cat­ed his hopes to the War Sec­re­tary that he would man­age a sat­is­fac­to­ry account of his forces, despite their low lev­el of orga­ni­za­tion. Reports from Colonel Roswell Rip­ley high­light­ed the dire sit­u­a­tion, reveal­ing that many recruits were ill-equipped and poor­ly trained.

As the day pro­gressed, des­per­a­tion began to seep into the com­mu­ni­ca­tions between Beau­re­gard and his offi­cers. Warn­ings about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of North­ern rein­force­ments rein­forced the urgency; one offi­cer, Hen­ry J. Hart­stene, urged Beau­re­gard to make a deci­sive move quick­ly. On the ground, Major W.H.C. Whit­ing expressed frus­tra­tion over the dis­ar­ray among the troops and beseeched Beau­re­gard for assis­tance.

Despite the tur­moil, prepa­ra­tions were inten­si­fied as sol­diers received orders to ready their posi­tions at Cum­mings Point, where they await­ed a sig­nal to bom­bard Fort Sumter. The antic­i­pa­tion built as its most eager mem­bers, par­tic­u­lar­ly Edmund Ruf­fin of the Pal­met­to Guard, pre­pared to fire the first shot in the con­fronta­tion, though delays led to dis­ap­point­ment when the expect­ed bom­bard­ment did not com­mence at the ini­tial hour.

Through­out the night, ten­sion lin­gered as the gun­ners remained on high alert, only to learn that the attack was post­poned until the fol­low­ing morn­ing. Ruf­fin found him­self ready to act, pre­pared for an event that had stirred great excite­ment and anx­i­ety in the com­mu­ni­ty. As night fell, the sounds of drums echoed, sig­nal­ing move­ment towards ful­fill­ment of their inten­tions.