Sus­pense grips both sides of the con­flict as ear­ly April unfolds, with Con­fed­er­ate Pres­i­dent Jef­fer­son Davis and his cab­i­net becom­ing increas­ing­ly uneasy about the sit­u­a­tion. Their con­fi­dence relies heav­i­ly on the reas­sur­ances of their inter­me­di­ary, Jus­tice Camp­bell, whose promis­es are begin­ning to feel less reli­able as ten­sions esca­late. Mean­while, the Con­fed­er­ate com­mis­sion­ers in Wash­ing­ton, who are used to posi­tions of pow­er, feel dis­re­spect­ed by Sec­re­tary of State Seward’s refusal to meet with them. They had hoped to be rec­og­nized as legit­i­mate rep­re­sen­ta­tives of a new­ly formed repub­lic, but instead, they were met with indif­fer­ence, fur­ther fuel­ing their frus­tra­tion and sense of injus­tice. This sit­u­a­tion high­lights the stark real­i­ty of the Con­fed­er­a­cy’s diplo­mat­ic strug­gle, as they faced not only inter­nal dis­agree­ments but also exter­nal obsta­cles that threat­ened their stand­ing on the world stage.

The ten­sion grows as Campbell’s reas­sur­ances clash with increas­ing rumors of mil­i­tary action against the Con­fed­er­a­cy. Reports of ships car­ry­ing armed troops en route to Fort Sumter add to the ris­ing unease, espe­cial­ly as the Con­fed­er­ate com­mis­sion­ers learn that Pres­i­dent Lin­coln is meet­ing with naval offi­cers. This rev­e­la­tion inten­si­fies their fear, as they believe that a mil­i­tary con­fronta­tion is immi­nent. In response to these grow­ing con­cerns, Con­fed­er­ate Sec­re­tary of War L. P. Walk­er issues instruc­tions to Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard, urg­ing him to main­tain “watch­ful vig­i­lance.” It is clear that the Con­fed­er­ate lead­er­ship is brac­ing for an attack, unsure of when it may occur but cer­tain that the sit­u­a­tion is reach­ing a crit­i­cal point. This sense of antic­i­pa­tion becomes a defin­ing aspect of the chap­ter, as both sides pre­pare for what they fear could be a vio­lent esca­la­tion.

At the same time, Charleston serves as the back­drop for a more per­son­al and some­what lighter aspect of life dur­ing this tense peri­od. John Man­ning, an aide to Beau­re­gard, con­tin­ues to engage in a flir­ta­tion with Mary Ches­nut, offer­ing a brief respite from the heavy polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary cli­mate. In her diary, Mary cap­tures these moments, detail­ing how Man­ning con­fid­ed in her about his secre­tive exchanges with his wife regard­ing their flir­ta­tion. Despite the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion sur­round­ing them, this play­ful inter­ac­tion pro­vides a stark con­trast to the oth­er­wise dire cir­cum­stances. Mary’s reflec­tions offer a glimpse into the human side of life dur­ing such tumul­tuous times, where per­son­al rela­tion­ships and emo­tions still played out amidst the back­drop of war. These encoun­ters, though seem­ing­ly light­heart­ed, add lay­ers of com­plex­i­ty to the lives of indi­vid­u­als caught in a his­tor­i­cal mael­strom.

Mean­while, in Rich­mond, the Vir­ginia Con­ven­tion faces a cru­cial moment on April 4, when a vote on the pro­posed ordi­nance of seces­sion is over­whelm­ing­ly reject­ed. The out­come sparks out­rage among fig­ures like Edmund Ruf­fin in Charleston, who sees the reluc­tance of Virginia’s lead­er­ship as a sig­nif­i­cant hur­dle to the South’s cause. Ruf­fin, deeply frus­trat­ed by the hes­i­tance shown by the con­ven­tion, wish­es for a naval attack from Lin­coln to force Vir­ginia into seced­ing. He believes that only such an event could jus­ti­fy the action and alle­vi­ate the bur­den of explain­ing why Vir­ginia is hold­ing back from join­ing the Con­fed­er­a­cy. This desire for exter­nal action to cat­alyze Virginia’s seces­sion high­lights the urgency felt by many in the South, who were impa­tient for the nation’s break from the Union to be final­ized. The rejec­tion of seces­sion in Rich­mond under­scores the divi­sions with­in the Con­fed­er­a­cy and the broad­er South, where not all states were eager to sev­er ties with the Union.

Thus, this chap­ter reveals the deep­en­ing fore­bod­ing of impend­ing mil­i­tary con­flict, with polit­i­cal deci­sions and social dynam­ics inter­twin­ing. The con­trast­ing emo­tions of pow­er and per­son­al con­nec­tions are exam­ined, demon­strat­ing the com­plex inter­play between duty and human rela­tion­ships dur­ing a time of cri­sis. As the Con­fed­er­a­cy grap­ples with inter­nal divi­sions, exter­nal threats, and the uncer­tain­ty of the future, the per­son­al lives of indi­vid­u­als like Mary Ches­nut offer a poignant reminder of the emo­tion­al toll of liv­ing in such a charged atmos­phere. The chap­ter poignant­ly reflects how, despite the loom­ing shad­ow of war, human desires, fears, and con­nec­tions con­tin­ue to shape lives even dur­ing the most tur­bu­lent of times.