Pecu­liar cir­cum­stances sur­round­ed the events of April 13, as Pri­vate Young, sta­tioned at Fort Sumter, noticed a sud­den lull in the bar­rage from Con­fed­er­ate bat­ter­ies around 1:00 PM. This unex­pect­ed qui­et unset­tled the oars­men, who, fear­ing the worst, began to voice their con­cerns and express a desire to leave, anx­ious for their safe­ty. Mean­while, Louis T. Wig­fall, a promi­nent Con­fed­er­ate fig­ure, arrived at the fort, despite lack­ing the offi­cial orders that would have made his nego­ti­a­tion legit­i­mate. Wig­fall, eager to take action, pre­sent­ed him­self as the Con­fed­er­ate nego­tia­tor and offered to meet any terms Ander­son would demand to pre­vent fur­ther blood­shed. Ander­son, rec­og­niz­ing the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion, agreed to the terms pre­vi­ous­ly out­lined by Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard, which includ­ed evac­u­at­ing the fort and ren­der­ing a for­mal salute to the flag as a sym­bol of sur­ren­der. With­out delay, Ander­son ordered the Amer­i­can flag to be low­ered and replaced with a white flag, sig­ni­fy­ing the ces­sa­tion of hos­til­i­ties for the moment.

Wigfall’s excite­ment was pal­pa­ble as he hur­ried back to the boat, eager to con­vey the news of the fort’s sur­ren­der to the oars­men. Their ini­tial relief at the news was tem­pered by an under­ly­ing sense of uncer­tain­ty as they made their way to Mor­ris Island. As they approached, they were met with a cho­rus of cheers from Con­fed­er­ate sol­diers on the island, eager to cel­e­brate what they believed was a deci­sive vic­to­ry. How­ev­er, soon after their arrival, anoth­er boat appeared car­ry­ing addi­tion­al Con­fed­er­ate offi­cers, unaware of Wigfall’s unau­tho­rized actions. These offi­cers brought with them a mes­sage from Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard, ask­ing if Ander­son required any fur­ther assis­tance. Upon learn­ing of Wigfall’s actions, Ander­son was deeply offend­ed, feel­ing humil­i­at­ed by the decep­tion. His ini­tial reac­tion was to doc­u­ment the terms of the sur­ren­der but also to threat­en to raise the Amer­i­can flag once again in protest. The Con­fed­er­ate offi­cers quick­ly inter­vened, urg­ing him to hold off on rais­ing the flag until they could con­sult with Beau­re­gard, forc­ing Ander­son to reluc­tant­ly main­tain the truce for the time being.

As the ten­sion lin­gered, Wig­fall was ordered to return to Charleston to report to Beau­re­gard and present the lat­est devel­op­ments. He took Pri­vate Young with him, and on the way, they passed Fort Sumter, show­ing respect by dip­ping the Pal­met­to flag as they went by. Upon reach­ing Charleston, Wig­fall was cel­e­brat­ed like a hero by the enthu­si­as­tic Con­fed­er­ate crowd, while Young, who was dressed in for­mal attire, felt awk­ward and out of place among the cheer­ing offi­cers, mis­tak­en­ly thought to be of high­er rank. Although the cel­e­bra­tion was intense, Young’s dis­com­fort was pal­pa­ble, high­light­ing the dis­par­i­ty between the joy­ous crowd and his own sense of being a mere observ­er in this rapid­ly unfold­ing dra­ma. The mood shift­ed as four Con­fed­er­ate offi­cers lat­er vis­it­ed Ander­son to final­ize the terms of the sur­ren­der, and Ander­son agreed to one final request: a cer­e­mo­ni­al hun­dred-gun salute in recog­ni­tion of his brav­ery. The date for the evac­u­a­tion was set for April 14, and with it, the tran­si­tion of con­trol over Fort Sumter to the Con­fed­er­ate forces was con­firmed. This marked the begin­ning of a new chap­ter in the war, as the Pal­met­to Guard pre­pared to occu­py the fort, sym­bol­iz­ing the Confederacy’s grow­ing pow­er and dom­i­nance in the ear­ly days of the Civ­il War. The chap­ter cap­tures the com­plex­i­ties of ear­ly Con­fed­er­ate vic­to­ries, the emo­tion­al tur­moil of the indi­vid­u­als involved, and the shift­ing pow­er dynam­ics that would define the con­flict mov­ing for­ward.

The nar­ra­tive con­tin­ues to under­line the mix­ture of pride, frus­tra­tion, and strate­gic maneu­ver­ing as both sides of the war con­tin­ued to make their moves. For Ander­son, the sur­ren­der of Fort Sumter was a bit­ter yet nec­es­sary moment, mark­ing the end of his com­mand and the begin­ning of a much larg­er con­flict. Mean­while, for Wig­fall and the Con­fed­er­a­cy, the event was seen as a sym­bol of their strength and resolve, yet the under­ly­ing ten­sion remained, as the true cost of the war had not yet been ful­ly real­ized. This chap­ter serves to high­light not just the tac­ti­cal deci­sions made but the emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal weight borne by those who lived through these tumul­tuous events, offer­ing a deep­er look into the per­son­al and polit­i­cal ram­i­fi­ca­tions that would unfold in the years to come.