Under Fire, the Star of the West found itself in a dire sit­u­a­tion as it approached Fort Sumter, com­ing under fire from a hid­den bat­tery posi­tioned on the shore­line. Cap­tain McGowan, sta­tioned aboard the ship, metic­u­lous­ly doc­u­ment­ed the dan­ger­ous cir­cum­stances, not­ing the way can­non­balls ric­o­cheted off the ves­sel’s hull. One shot nar­row­ly missed the pilot-house, while anoth­er struck the side of the ship, inten­si­fy­ing the grow­ing threat to the ves­sel. Giv­en the ship’s large size and lack of expe­ri­enced gunners—fifty cadets manned the can­nons, many of whom had lit­tle com­bat experience—it became an easy tar­get. The cadets’ shots were wild and large­ly inef­fec­tive, fur­ther esca­lat­ing the ten­sion sur­round­ing their mis­sion. This sit­u­a­tion demon­strat­ed the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of the Star of the West, and high­light­ed the lack of pre­pared­ness for such a crit­i­cal engage­ment in the face of mount­ing aggres­sion.

As the attack on the Star of the West con­tin­ued, the crew attempt­ed to sig­nal for assis­tance from Fort Sumter by rais­ing and low­er­ing their flag. Lieu­tenant Dou­ble­day, sta­tioned at the fort, quick­ly observed the dis­tress sig­nals and act­ed with urgency, alert­ing his gar­ri­son to pre­pare for action. Mean­while, Major Ander­son, the fort’s com­mand­ing offi­cer, was forced to grap­ple with the com­plex real­i­ty of his posi­tion. Ander­son was torn between respond­ing to the attack on the U.S. flag by order­ing a return fire and the dire con­se­quences that would fol­low, espe­cial­ly if such actions led to a full-scale civ­il war. His inter­nal strug­gle was fraught with the grav­i­ty of the moment; retal­i­at­ing could spark con­flict, yet inac­tion could send a mes­sage of weak­ness, endan­ger­ing the fort’s cred­i­bil­i­ty. Anderson’s care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion of these com­pet­ing fac­tors under­lined the immense pres­sure he faced as ten­sions rose rapid­ly.

The pres­sure from his offi­cers, includ­ing Lieu­tenant Jef­fer­son Davis, who called for deci­sive action, increased Anderson’s sense of urgency. Davis and oth­ers believed that strik­ing back was the only way to pre­serve the hon­or of the Union and pro­tect Fort Sumter from fur­ther provo­ca­tion. Ander­son, how­ev­er, was increas­ing­ly torn, divid­ed between his duty to the Union and his sym­pa­thy for the South­ern cause, which had many sup­port­ers with­in the fort’s ranks. As Ander­son grap­pled with the real­i­ty of esca­lat­ing ten­sions, Lieu­tenant Woods aboard the Star of the West was faced with a dif­fi­cult deci­sion. The ship was under con­stant fire, and the risk of being cap­tured or ground­ed in hos­tile waters was becom­ing more appar­ent with each pass­ing moment. Woods ulti­mate­ly decid­ed that retreat was the safest course of action, choos­ing to with­draw from the har­bor to avoid a poten­tial­ly dis­as­trous con­fronta­tion.

Despite the over­whelm­ing dan­ger, the Star of the West was able to retreat from the har­bor, although Lieu­tenant Woods knew that time was run­ning out. If the ship failed to move with the tide, it would be vul­ner­a­ble to attack, and their escape would become even more per­ilous. This real­iza­tion fur­ther high­light­ed the impos­si­bil­i­ty of their mis­sion, as the ship’s approach had been antic­i­pat­ed by the local South­ern forces. The ele­ment of sur­prise, which had been the Union’s last hope, was lost, and they were left scram­bling to regroup. This shift in momen­tum under­scored the chang­ing dynam­ics of the con­flict, as the South’s mil­i­tary strength grew stronger and more orga­nized, leav­ing lit­tle room for Union advances in this crit­i­cal moment.

As the Star of the West made its retreat, the gar­ri­son at Fort Sumter, though ini­tial­ly hope­ful for a time­ly response, was left in a state of uncer­tain­ty. The sit­u­a­tion at the fort, as well as aboard the ship, reflect­ed the broad­er ten­sions with­in the nation. On the one hand, the defend­ers of the fort were doing their best to main­tain a stance of defi­ance, while on the oth­er, the polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary land­scape was rapid­ly shift­ing toward a full-blown con­fronta­tion. Anderson’s refusal to take imme­di­ate action in response to the South­ern aggres­sion was seen by some as a fail­ure to defend the hon­or of the flag, while oth­ers viewed it as a nec­es­sary restraint to pre­vent fur­ther esca­la­tion. The Star of the West, caught between these com­pet­ing forces, became a sym­bol of the deep­en­ing divide between North and South, and the uncer­tain­ty of the future.

The chap­ter cap­tures the dra­mat­ic clash of loy­al­ty, duty, and polit­i­cal pres­sure faced by those sta­tioned at Fort Sumter and aboard the Star of the West. It sheds light on the com­plex­i­ties of the indi­vid­u­als involved, who were all caught in the mid­dle of a brew­ing con­flict that would soon engulf the nation. The loom­ing threat of civ­il war was no longer a dis­tant pos­si­bil­i­ty, but a present real­i­ty, as every action tak­en dur­ing this peri­od had last­ing con­se­quences. The vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty of the Star of the West and the grow­ing hos­til­i­ty from the South under­scored the broad­er chal­lenges that the Union would face in the com­ing months. The chap­ter poignant­ly illus­trates the del­i­cate bal­ance between mil­i­tary deci­sion-mak­ing and the polit­i­cal forces at play, cap­tur­ing the uncer­tain­ty and anx­i­ety that per­me­at­ed this fraught moment in Amer­i­can his­to­ry. Through the lens of these tense moments, the stage was set for the explo­sive con­flicts that would fol­low, for­ev­er chang­ing the course of the nation.