Rumor and can­non fire swept through Charleston on April 9, as Mary Ches­nut, despite bat­tling a bad cold, was prepar­ing to return to her Mul­ber­ry plan­ta­tion. Ini­tial­ly hes­i­tant to leave, a vis­it from her friend Robert Gour­din per­suad­ed her to change her mind. Their con­ver­sa­tion took an unex­pect­ed turn when John Man­ning entered the room with dra­mat­ic news, declar­ing that “your coun­try is invad­ed.” He claimed that six war­ships were posi­tioned off the coast, and mes­sen­gers Tal­bot and Chew brought more unset­tling news of impend­ing war. How­ev­er, this alarm­ing announce­ment was lat­er revealed to be based on a mis­un­der­stand­ing, large­ly due to poor vis­i­bil­i­ty caused by a storm. The sup­posed sight­ing of the war­ships was sim­ply a prod­uct of mis­in­ter­pre­ta­tion and pan­ic.

Mary, eager to con­firm the infor­ma­tion, quick­ly shared the news with her hus­band, Mr. C, who added to the grow­ing ten­sion by agree­ing with the alarm­ing claims. The con­ver­sa­tion was fur­ther fueled when a man named Wig­fall arrived, quot­ing the works of poet Lord Byron, adding a touch of lit­er­ary grav­i­tas to the already chaot­ic atmos­phere. As the con­ver­sa­tion unfold­ed, Mary’s anx­i­ety inten­si­fied. She and Mrs. W retreat­ed to her room, where they dis­cussed the poten­tial hor­rors of the Civ­il War that seemed on the verge of erupt­ing. Their thoughts were abrupt­ly inter­rupt­ed as dis­tant can­non fire echoed across the town, fol­lowed by the unmis­tak­able shouts of sol­diers prepar­ing for con­flict.

By 11 p.m., the rain had begun to fall heav­i­ly, but the sound of six can­non blasts pierced through the town, send­ing waves of fear through the cit­i­zens. Mary crossed paths with Mrs. Allen Green, who appeared vis­i­bly shak­en by the events. For­mer Gov­er­nor John Means approached Mary with the lat­est news, inform­ing her that Gov­er­nor Pick­ens had ordered sev­en can­non blasts, sig­nal­ing the 17th Reg­i­ment to mobi­lize. The blasts were meant to gath­er the reg­i­ment for trans­port to Mor­ris Island, where they await­ed the pre­sumed Union assault. This com­mu­ni­ca­tion was not just a warn­ing, but a call to action, empha­siz­ing the immi­nent nature of the con­flict. The city’s atmos­phere was one of grow­ing ten­sion, as sol­diers pre­pared for a poten­tial con­fronta­tion, with their resilience being test­ed by the rumors of Union ships just beyond the hori­zon.

The sound of the can­non, com­bined with the fer­vent activ­i­ty in the streets, cre­at­ed a sense of urgency that gripped the town. Mary, reflect­ing on the events, not­ed the sleep­less night that fol­lowed, filled with the sounds of shout­ing sol­diers and the hur­ried march­ing of troops. The chaos of the moment was pal­pa­ble, and the ten­sion in the air was almost tan­gi­ble. Mean­while, Edmund Ruf­fin, sta­tioned on Mor­ris Island, observed the height­ened excite­ment among Charleston’s inhab­i­tants, all aware that the first shots of the Civ­il War might be fired any moment. The city, already on edge, felt the weight of his­to­ry clos­ing in as prepa­ra­tions were made, and every­one antic­i­pat­ed the vio­lent esca­la­tion that seemed inevitable. The com­bi­na­tion of rumors, can­non fire, and the rest­less ener­gy of a town brac­ing for war was a reflec­tion of the col­lec­tive anx­i­ety that swept through Charleston in the days lead­ing up to the war.

This chap­ter pro­vides a vivid por­tray­al of the con­fu­sion and uncer­tain­ty that pre­ced­ed the first major con­flict of the Civ­il War. The blend­ing of rumors, height­ened expec­ta­tions, and mil­i­tary prepa­ra­tions paints a pic­ture of a soci­ety on the brink of an inevitable clash. The events described show how mis­in­for­ma­tion, cou­pled with the tense atmos­phere of impend­ing war, could lead to wide­spread anx­i­ety and fear. In a time of uncer­tain­ty, such rumors, no mat­ter how unfound­ed, held pow­er in shap­ing the emo­tion­al cli­mate of a com­mu­ni­ty. The expe­ri­ences of Mary Ches­nut offer a glimpse into the mind­set of those liv­ing through the chaos of the Civ­il War’s ear­ly days, high­light­ing the con­fu­sion, fear, and antic­i­pa­tion that would define this piv­otal moment in Amer­i­can his­to­ry.

As Charleston braced for the uncer­tain­ty of war, the con­fu­sion cre­at­ed by rumors and can­non fire only fueled the ten­sion that would soon explode into full-scale con­flict. The city, filled with anx­ious cit­i­zens and ner­vous sol­diers, was poised for a bat­tle that would define the course of the nation’s his­to­ry. The unex­pect­ed delay of the war­ships, com­bined with the increas­ing num­ber of can­non blasts, inten­si­fied the sense of urgency, under­scor­ing the frag­ile nature of peace in the moments lead­ing up to a war that would leave a last­ing mark on the coun­try. This chap­ter serves as a reminder of the volatil­i­ty of his­to­ry, where the small­est rumors and the loud­est can­non fire could change the course of a nation.