In the chap­ter titled “Trust,” the nar­ra­tive unfolds dur­ing a tumul­tuous time in ear­ly spring of 1861, par­tic­u­lar­ly focus­ing on the fate of Fort Sumter. Sec­re­tary of State Seward had assured Con­fed­er­ate com­mis­sion­ers that the Fort would be evac­u­at­ed with­in five days; how­ev­er, as March 20 rolled around—the sup­posed evac­u­a­tion day—Fort Sumter remained under fed­er­al con­trol. Mean­while, Wash­ing­ton was grap­pling with an unex­pect­ed and bru­tal cold snap, deep­en­ing the sense of urgency for a res­o­lu­tion.

Con­fed­er­ate Sec­re­tary of State Toombs expressed grow­ing con­cern with his telegram sent to the Wash­ing­ton com­mis­sion­ers, mark­ing their unease. They respond­ed, empha­siz­ing a need for patience and faith in Seward’s assur­ances. Despite the con­tin­u­ing lack of com­mu­ni­ca­tion regard­ing the Fort’s sta­tus, the com­mis­sion­ers remained hope­ful, seek­ing updates from Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard in Charleston, who con­firmed that Sumter had not been evac­u­at­ed and that troops were still for­ti­fy­ing its defens­es.

The ten­sion esca­lat­ed as Jus­tice Camp­bell, serv­ing as an inter­me­di­ary, met with Seward, who insist­ed that every­thing was under con­trol but sug­gest­ed Camp­bell return the fol­low­ing day for a more thor­ough meet­ing. Sub­se­quent­ly, Seward’s opti­mism about the evac­u­a­tion was reaf­firmed. How­ev­er, upon fur­ther inquiry, the com­mis­sion­ers dis­cov­ered seri­ous con­cerns regard­ing the sta­tus of Fort Sumter.

Cap­tain Gus­tavus Fox, tasked by Lin­coln to assess con­di­tions at Fort Sumter, arrived on March 21 and sought per­mis­sion from Gov­er­nor Pick­ens for a vis­it to the fort. Despite delays, he final­ly met Major Ander­son with­in the fort. This vis­it clar­i­fied the dire sup­ply sit­u­a­tion, with Ander­son declar­ing that the fort could only hold out until April 15 with­out resup­ply.

Post-vis­it, Cap­tain Hart­stene met with Beau­re­gard, rais­ing alarms about the brief unmon­i­tored time Fox spent with Ander­son. Fol­low­ing their dis­cus­sions, Ander­son report­ed to Wash­ing­ton, dis­put­ing Fox’s opti­mistic assess­ment of poten­tial rein­force­ments and point­ing out sig­nif­i­cant logis­ti­cal chal­lenges. Cap­tain Fox, in Wash­ing­ton, sug­gest­ed that Anderson’s hes­i­tance might stem from South­ern sym­pa­thies, increas­ing ten­sions sur­round­ing loy­al­ty and deci­sion-mak­ing among Union offi­cers.

The chap­ter con­cludes with a pal­pa­ble ten­sion in the air; Fox’s per­sua­sion of Lin­coln regard­ing the resup­ply mis­sion sig­nals grow­ing com­plex­i­ties in the polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary land­scape of the time as the fate of Fort Sumter hangs in the bal­ance.