In the chap­ter titled “Salute,” the sit­u­a­tion at Fort Sumter is por­trayed as increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult for the sol­diers sta­tioned there. Asst. Sur­geon Craw­ford, who had pre­vi­ous­ly been in good health, express­es con­cern about his dete­ri­o­rat­ing con­di­tion, feel­ing the toll of stress and fatigue. He writes to his broth­er, long­ing for a break and lament­ing the state of the coun­try, indi­cat­ing a bleak out­look for the future. The per­va­sive fear of an impend­ing attack weighs heav­i­ly on the troops, with Craw­ford not­ing the fran­tic activ­i­ty of the Car­olini­ans work­ing on their defens­es, liken­ing them to bees.

Despite his pride in his ser­vice, Craw­ford con­veys bit­ter­ness regard­ing the lack of rein­force­ments, crit­i­ciz­ing the poli­cies of Pres­i­dent Buchanan that left them vul­ner­a­ble. He believes they are being sac­ri­ficed in a polit­i­cal strat­e­gy to sway pub­lic opin­ion against those who would attack them. Yet, he acknowl­edges that the first shot fired at Fort Sumter will like­ly ral­ly the nation to arms, sig­nal­ing a sig­nif­i­cant shift in the con­flict.

On Feb­ru­ary 22, Major Ander­son made the notable deci­sion to fire a salute in hon­or of George Washington’s birth­day, which marked a depar­ture from their usu­al con­ser­v­a­tive approach to ammu­ni­tion. The salute con­sist­ed of thir­ty-four shots rep­re­sent­ing each state, includ­ing those that had seced­ed. Craw­ford super­vised the fir­ing, not­ing the inter­est of spec­ta­tors at the oppos­ing Con­fed­er­ate forts who con­tem­plat­ed the mean­ing of such mil­i­tary dis­plays.

Ander­son­’s actions drew crit­i­cism from fig­ures like Mary Ches­nut, who viewed the salute as an affront to the new­ly declared Con­fed­er­ate States. The chap­ter encap­su­lates a moment of ten­sion, embody­ing both the pride and sor­row of mil­i­tary duty under dire cir­cum­stances as the coun­try sits on the brink of war. It high­lights the emo­tion­al strain on the men at Fort Sumter, who grap­ple with their loy­al­ty to duty amidst grow­ing hos­til­i­ty and uncer­tain­ty.