**Chap­ter Sum­ma­ry: The Hand­somest Man**

In Charleston, life con­tin­ued seam­less­ly despite the loom­ing civ­il war. The Bat­tery’s vibrant atmos­phere includ­ed car­riages, ele­gant­ly dressed men and women, and the occa­sion­al can­non blast sig­nal­ing mil­i­tary prepa­ra­tions. Mary Ches­nut, a promi­nent fig­ure among the local elite, became the cen­ter of atten­tion with her flir­ta­tion involv­ing for­mer Gov­er­nor Man­ning, a wealthy man known for his hand­some looks, who was also mar­ried. This play­ful engage­ment, termed a “flir­ta­tion” in South­ern soci­ety, was viewed as a benign dis­trac­tion from the tur­bu­lent times.

Mary and her hus­band jour­neyed to Charleston from their Mul­ber­ry plan­ta­tion on March 25. The train was filled with atten­dees bound for the state’s seces­sion con­ven­tion. Man­ning clev­er­ly maneu­vered to sit beside Mary on the train, pre­tend­ing to be in charge of a young lady. Their inter­ac­tion revealed Mary’s delight in Man­ning’s atten­tion, which also sparked some jeal­ousy in her husband—a dynam­ic she appeared to enjoy.

Dur­ing their stay at the Gidiere board­ing house, ten­sions arose at break­fast, par­tic­u­lar­ly due to her uncle Judge With­ers’ sharp remarks about Mary’s con­ver­sa­tion­al style, which incor­po­rat­ed French phras­es. This remark led to a humor­ous exchange involv­ing William Hen­ry Trescot, who not­ed their intent to keep their dis­cus­sions hid­den from enslaved staff.

Man­ning con­tin­ued to engage Mary flir­ta­tious­ly, even inter­rupt­ing her dur­ing break­fast dressed in for­mal attire to request a photograph—an act indica­tive of the social rit­u­als of the time. Mary, rel­ish­ing the moment, brought her hus­band along on this endeav­or. The day lat­er shift­ed to a dark­er tone as Mary vis­it­ed Mag­no­lia Ceme­tery with friends, reveal­ing the somber real­i­ties of death amid soci­etal dis­trac­tions.

That evening, her hus­band con­front­ed Mary regard­ing her atten­tion to Man­ning, accus­ing her of flir­ta­tion. Mary found the accu­sa­tion amus­ing, dis­miss­ing it with laugh­ter, sig­ni­fy­ing a com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ship dynam­ic where flir­ta­tion and soci­etal expec­ta­tions played a sig­nif­i­cant role amidst the back­drop of impend­ing con­flict .