The chap­ter titled “Smoke and Cheers” from “The Demon of Unrest” begins at Fort Sumter, where the atmos­phere is one of gloom and ten­sion. Cap­tain Dou­ble­day describes the fort—its dark, damp, and unfin­ished structure—with only fif­teen guns mount­ed out of a planned one hun­dred and twen­ty. Despite its for­mi­da­ble design as a coastal fortress meant to pro­tect against inva­sions, it remains incom­plete, with debris clut­ter­ing the inte­ri­or, mak­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion with­in the fort chal­leng­ing.

The offi­cers, how­ev­er, antic­i­pate greater com­fort once their quar­ters are com­plet­ed, fea­tur­ing airy rooms with high ceil­ings, a water clos­et, and fire­places, albeit with some poten­tial­ly haz­ardous loca­tions due to their prox­im­i­ty to gun­pow­der mag­a­zines. Most of the fort’s artillery con­sists of thir­ty-two-pound can­nons, with the heav­i­est being ten-inch “columbi­ads,” which weigh around fif­teen thou­sand pounds—significant fire­pow­er for the time.

The ten­sion esca­lates when Major Ander­son, the com­mand­ing offi­cer, assem­bles all troops to raise the flag at the new­ly occu­pied Fort Sumter on Decem­ber 27. A prayer is offered for peace and nation­al uni­ty, fol­lowed by the flag being hoist­ed amidst cheers from the gar­ri­son, prompt­ing dis­be­lief and fear among the Carolinians—that what they tried to pre­vent had hap­pened.

Gov­er­nor Fran­cis Pick­ens of South Car­oli­na feels betrayed by Pres­i­dent Buchanan, believ­ing he had been promised no rein­force­ment at Sumter. In a fit of anger, he sends offi­cers to con­front Ander­son, who defends his actions by assert­ing his right to relo­cate for safe­ty, giv­en the threats from local south­ern troops.

Despite the tense dia­logue, Ander­son remains com­posed and explains that the move was made with­out mal­ice, pure­ly to pre­vent blood­shed, while express­ing sym­pa­thy towards the South. His firm refusal to return to Fort Moul­trie results in the south­ern offi­cers leav­ing, though they are impressed by his demeanor. In the after­math, seces­sion­ist work­ers at Sumter request to leave, lead­ing to many depart­ing the fort, demon­strat­ing the uncer­tain­ty and loom­ing con­flict sur­round­ing the for­ti­fied posi­tion .