**Ova­tion, The Demon of Unrest — Sum­ma­ry**

On the morn­ing of April 18, aboard the *Baltic* off Sandy Hook, New Jer­sey, Capt. Gus­tavus Fox and Major Ander­son reflect­ed on the recent events sur­round­ing Fort Sumter. Ander­son, with a sense of res­ig­na­tion, dic­tat­ed a sum­ma­ry to Simon Cameron, Sec­re­tary of War, describ­ing the dire state of the fort after a 34-hour defense. He out­lined the destruc­tion suf­fered, lack­ing pro­vi­sions, and the sub­se­quent deci­sion to evac­u­ate under terms offered by Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard. On April 14, the evac­u­a­tion was com­plet­ed with col­ors fly­ing and drums beat­ing, hav­ing sal­vaged com­pa­ny and pri­vate prop­er­ty.

As *Baltic* entered New York Har­bor, cheers erupt­ed from pass­ing ves­sels, mir­ror­ing the enthu­si­asm seen in Charleston after the fort’s sur­ren­der. Pres­i­dent Lin­coln for­mal­ly expressed grat­i­tude to Anderson’s team through the War Depart­ment, fol­lowed by a per­son­al let­ter aimed at show­ing appre­ci­a­tion and clear­ing any mis­un­der­stand­ings. Two months lat­er, Lin­coln would express the immense tri­als faced dur­ing this peri­od in Wash­ing­ton.

Mean­while, Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard cel­e­brat­ed the suc­cess of his sol­diers and pro­claimed their poten­tial for invin­ci­bil­i­ty against oppos­ing forces. Mary Ches­nut cap­tured her thoughts in her diary, empha­siz­ing the sig­nif­i­cance of the siege.

On April 19, with Vir­ginia hav­ing seced­ed, Edmund Ruf­fin marked the end of his self-imposed exile, declar­ing sat­is­fac­tion as the nation moved toward war. Crowds amassed to read news of North­ern troop move­ments and the ensu­ing vio­lence in Bal­ti­more. As Con­fed­er­ate forces cap­tured strate­gic sites, Ruf­fin felt com­pelled to join prepa­ra­tions for the antic­i­pat­ed con­flict, trav­el­ing to Rich­mond where he wit­nessed a fer­vent atmos­phere filled with vol­un­teers, includ­ing Pres­i­dent Jef­fer­son Davis and Gen­er­al Robert E. Lee.

War appeared immi­nent as Ruffin’s sons enlist­ed, with expec­ta­tions of a swift South­ern vic­to­ry. He was par­tic­u­lar­ly proud when his son Charles sought to join the Pal­met­to Guard, cher­ish­ing the hopes that this deci­sion would lead to the boy’s redemp­tion and hon­or. By the end of May, despite lack­ing mil­i­tary expe­ri­ence, Charles was in camp with the Guard near Man­as­sas Junc­tion, set­ting the stage for the con­flict ahead.