Inter­est­ing news was cir­cu­lat­ing around Fort Sumter as Pri­vate Mil­lens wrote to his father about the increas­ing mil­i­tary pres­ence in Charleston between March 1 and 3. He observed that for­ti­fi­ca­tions around the area were near­ing com­ple­tion, and Mor­ris Island had been trans­formed into a high­ly for­ti­fied posi­tion with mul­ti­ple bat­ter­ies. Mil­lens also men­tioned a new weapon under devel­op­ment, a float­ing bat­tery, which was near­ing readi­ness but was also cum­ber­some. This new addi­tion to the Con­fed­er­ate arse­nal was expect­ed to be placed dan­ger­ous­ly close to their own for­ti­fi­ca­tions and equipped with heavy artillery, inten­si­fy­ing the threat to Fort Sumter. Mil­lens, how­ev­er, remained uncer­tain about the future, not­ing that much depend­ed on the deci­sions of the new­ly inau­gu­rat­ed Pres­i­dent Abra­ham Lin­coln, whose poli­cies would have a pro­found impact on the course of events.

On March 1, the Con­fed­er­ate States offi­cial­ly assumed con­trol of mil­i­tary oper­a­tions in Charleston, appoint­ing Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard as the com­man­der of Con­fed­er­ate forces. Sec­re­tary of War, Leroy P. Walk­er, informed Gov­er­nor Pick­ens that Pres­i­dent Jef­fer­son Davis strong­ly believed in the urgent need to cap­ture Fort Sumter but stressed the impor­tance of thor­ough prepa­ra­tions. Walk­er empha­sized the neces­si­ty of a well-coor­di­nat­ed ini­tial strike to ensure the suc­cess of the oper­a­tion and avoid any demor­al­iza­tion among the troops or back­lash from the South­ern pop­u­lace. This strate­gic cau­tion reflect­ed the South’s aware­ness of the polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary chal­lenges they would face in the com­ing con­flict. Beauregard’s appoint­ment was a clear sig­nal of the South’s resolve, and the prepa­ra­tions were set into motion, though they were marked by care­ful plan­ning to avoid unnec­es­sary loss­es.

When Beau­re­gard arrived in Charleston, he was greet­ed with enthu­si­asm and admi­ra­tion by the local pop­u­la­tion. The Con­fed­er­ate gen­er­al was wel­comed with gifts and respect, a sign of the high hopes placed on him by the peo­ple of Charleston. Among his staff was Samuel Wragg Fer­gu­son, a for­mer offi­cer in the U.S. Army, who had embraced the Con­fed­er­ate cause and was eager to seize the oppor­tu­ni­ties that the seces­sion of the South­ern states had pro­vid­ed. His back­ground and knowl­edge of the mil­i­tary strate­gies of the Union were seen as valu­able assets as the South pre­pared for the loom­ing con­flict. The community’s response reflect­ed their opti­mism about the lead­er­ship of Beau­re­gard, even though the full scale of the impend­ing war was not yet ful­ly under­stood.

At the same time, the Confederacy’s diplo­mat­ic efforts were in full swing, with com­mis­sion­ers being sent to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., to nego­ti­ate with the Union. The first of these, Craw­ford, arrived in Wash­ing­ton, a city already abuzz with the ten­sion sur­round­ing Lincoln’s immi­nent inau­gu­ra­tion. His arrival marked the begin­ning of for­mal efforts to reach a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion, but the mood in Wash­ing­ton was one of uncer­tain­ty. The incom­ing president’s stance on the South’s seces­sion remained unclear, and the com­mis­sion­ers hoped to engage with Lincoln’s admin­is­tra­tion before it solid­i­fied its poli­cies. As the nation braced for Lin­col­n’s speech and the polit­i­cal maneu­ver­ing sur­round­ing it, the South’s des­per­a­tion to resolve the cri­sis through nego­ti­a­tion was evi­dent, though it was clear that con­flict was rapid­ly approach­ing.

In Charleston, mean­while, Edmund Ruf­fin expressed his frus­tra­tion with Virginia’s hes­i­ta­tion to secede. His dis­il­lu­sion­ment with the Union led him to leave Rich­mond and set­tle in Charleston, where he observed the increas­ing mil­i­tary prepa­ra­tions. Both white vol­un­teers and enslaved indi­vid­u­als worked togeth­er to for­ti­fy the city’s defens­es, rein­forc­ing the grow­ing sense of urgency as the South pre­pared for war. Ruffin’s move was emblem­at­ic of the fer­vent belief that seces­sion was the only path for­ward, and his actions sig­naled the deep­en­ing divi­sions that were splin­ter­ing the nation. As he set­tled into the Charleston Hotel, the air was thick with antic­i­pa­tion about the upcom­ing inau­gu­ra­tion, which was viewed as a turn­ing point that would either lead to peace or irrepara­bly split the coun­try. The dis­cus­sions swirling around the hotel were filled with grim pre­dic­tions about the con­se­quences of Lincoln’s lead­er­ship, fur­ther empha­siz­ing the grow­ing ten­sions that would even­tu­al­ly lead to the Civ­il War.