**Chap­ter Sum­ma­ry: The Worst Fear**

On April 13, a sig­nif­i­cant esca­la­tion in con­flict was not­ed by Cap­tain Fos­ter, the chief engi­neer at Fort Sumter. He doc­u­ment­ed improved aim from Con­fed­er­ate gun­ners in his engi­neer­ing jour­nal, describ­ing their increas­ing inten­si­ty as they tar­get­ed the fort. The Con­fed­er­ate forces uti­lized “hot shot,” which result­ed in injuries to four men when a shot struck a ground-lev­el embra­sure. A more severe inci­dent occurred when an explo­sive shell ignit­ed a fire in the offi­cers’ quar­ters, prompt­ing urgent warn­ings from Fos­ter to Ander­son about the poten­tial dan­ger to the fort’s gun­pow­der cache.

Con­trast­ing the tense atmos­phere at the fort, Con­fed­er­ate Assis­tant Sur­geon Park­er enjoyed a calm morn­ing on Mor­ris Island, cel­e­brat­ing the live­ly spir­its of his fel­low sol­diers despite the ongo­ing bat­tle. He expressed dis­con­tent over Fort Sumter’s focus on Fort Moul­trie, feel­ing it over­looked their own con­tri­bu­tions. After break­fast, Park­er and his com­rades were stirred by loud cheers from the beach, where they wit­nessed Fort Sumter ablaze.

As the fire grew fiercer, mor­tar shells and incen­di­ary can­non­balls con­tin­ued to rain down on the fort. Cap­tain Dou­ble­day rec­og­nized the imme­di­ate risk to the pow­der mag­a­zine, order­ing the trans­fer of gun­pow­der bar­rels even as the fire spread. This haz­ardous task inter­rupt­ed by incom­ing pro­jec­tiles was per­ilous, with men strug­gling to pro­tect the gun­pow­der from ignit­ing. Despite their efforts, the relent­less heat from the flames and explo­sions made the sit­u­a­tion increas­ing­ly des­per­ate.

Smoke choked the air as Dou­ble­day eval­u­at­ed the dire con­di­tions inside. Many sol­diers attempt­ed to evade suf­fo­ca­tion by lying low or escap­ing to open air. The intense flames and tumul­tuous sounds caused sig­nif­i­cant con­cern; as smoke bil­lowed around the fort, Dou­ble­day ordered a show of defi­ance by fir­ing back at the jubi­lant Con­fed­er­ate forces cel­e­brat­ing their appar­ent vic­to­ry.

On the city’s Bat­tery, civil­ians gath­ered to spec­tate the destruc­tion of Fort Sumter, while Dou­ble­day lament­ed the inac­ces­si­bil­i­ty of his artillery to retal­i­ate effec­tive­ly. As the chaot­ic scene esca­lat­ed, struc­tures with­in the fort began to col­lapse, and the loss of defens­es became evi­dent. Over on Mor­ris Island, Con­fed­er­ate sol­diers remained relent­less, show­er­ing the fort with can­non fire, which exac­er­bat­ed the burn­ing struc­ture.

At pre­cise­ly 12:48 PM, Con­fed­er­ate gun­ners suc­cess­ful­ly struck the flag­pole of Fort Sumter, caus­ing the flag to fall and invok­ing a wave of jubi­lant cheers from the Con­fed­er­ate forces, sym­bol­iz­ing their moment of tri­umph amid the chaos of war­fare.