As he walked to the table Davis, Rhett, xiv; Freehling, Secessionists Triumphant, 422. Interestingly, the actress who played India Wilkes, sister of Ashley, in the film Gone with the Wind was Alicia Rhett, Rhett’s great-granddaughter. Davis, Rhett, 669.

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  “The Union Is Dissolved!” Davis, Rhett, 411; Charleston Mercury, December 20, 1860, in “South Carolina Secession,” National Park Service, March 30, 2021.

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  “We have carried the body” Johnson, Lincoln’s First Crisis, 5.

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  “South Carolina is too small” Ford, Origins of Southern Radicalism, 371; Wright, South Carolina, 171.

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  “I have seen” Kibler, “Unionist Sentiment in South Carolina,” 365.

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  “As I now write” Ruffin, Diary, 1:512–13; Craven, Edmund Ruffin, 201.

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  “We sat staring” Chesnut, Private Mary Chesnut, 5; Deut: 33:25: “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.”

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  “I am truly glad” Chesnut, Private Mary Chesnut, 5–6.

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  Lincoln: Frustration

  “to ascertain if” David D. Porter, “Journal of D. D. Porter,” 41, Porter Papers.

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  “given to intrigues” Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, 19.

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  “As I approached the front door” Porter, “Journal,” 42.

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  “we are going to have a glorious monarchy” Johnson, Lincoln’s First Crisis, 9; Porter, “Journal,” 43.

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  “In my mind’s eye” Porter, “Journal,” 42.

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  “They were vociferating” Ibid., 43–45.

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  “This fraternizing with rebels” Ibid., 45.

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  “So many people” Greeley to Lincoln, December 22, 1860, Lincoln Papers. In the original postscript, Greeley wrote “deciffering.”

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  “seven or eight contiguous States” Ibid.; Potter, “Horace Greeley and Peaceable Secession,” 157.

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  “Fifteen years and the gout” Porter, “Journal,” 69.

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  “and tell him, confidentially” Lincoln, Collected Works, 4:159.

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  “I can scarcely believe this” Ibid., 4:162.

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  “The political horizon looks dark” Ibid., 4:160.

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  “they ought to hang him” Holzer, Lincoln President-Elect, 163.

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  Charleston: The Major Gets an Idea

  “If you have removed” John B. Floyd to John G. Foster, December 20, 1860, WOTR, 1:100.

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  On the same day Swanberg, First Blood, 64–67.

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  “Under these instructions” Floyd to Anderson, December 21, 1860, WOTR, 1:103.

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  “It is neither expected” Ibid.

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  “So far then” Hay and Nicolay, Abraham Lincoln, 3:41.

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  Ruffin: A Signal at Christmas

  “both false and foolish” Craven, Edmund Ruffin, 44.

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  “have denounced as sinful” “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.”

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  “I promised to go” Hay and Nicolay, Abraham Lincoln, 3:46.

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  “The glass, china, silver” Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 349.

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  “The crowning point” Davis, “Memories of Mulberry,” 11.

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  “Christmas Gift!” Ibid., 10.

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  “would spring out of unexpected corners” Bigham and May, “Time O’ All Times?,” 275.

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  “They all wanted one” Ibid., 273.

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  “We all had three days’ holiday” Ashton, I Belong to South Carolina, 104–5, 118; Davis, “Memories of Mulberry,” 10.

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  “Can we doubt God’s protection” Brevard, Plantation Mistress, 62.

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  “Xmas was no doubt” Scarborough, Masters of the Big House, 292–93.

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  “After we had passed” Ruffin, Diary, 1:516.

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  Anderson: Subterfuge

  “they would certainly be turned” Hay and Nicolay, Abraham Lincoln, 3:47.

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  “Both these measures were good blinds” Ibid.

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  “in this way” Ibid., 3:48.

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  “The sun was just setting” Doubleday, Reminiscences, 61.

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  “the fighting would probably commence” Ibid., 63.

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  “It was after sunset” Ibid., 65.

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  “The whole movement” Ibid., 66.

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  Into this farrago New York Times, February 7, 1861; Samuel Wylie Crawford to “My Dear Brother,” February 21, 1861, Crawford Papers.

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  “I chose an apartment” Doubleday, Reminiscences, 79.

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  “for His having given me” Lawton, Major Robert Anderson, 8–9.

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  “I have the honor” Anderson to Cooper, December 26, 1860, WOTR, 1:2.

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  “You may be assured” White, “Evacuation of Fort Moultrie,” 3.

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  Florida and Washington: Strange News

  “On the route” Ruffin, Diary, 1:517.

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  “more out of the world” Ibid., 1:518.

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  “Well at any rate Colonel” Hunt, “Narrative and Letter of William Henry Trescot,” 543.

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  “I am afraid governor” Ibid., 544.

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  “Intelligence has reached here” Floyd to Anderson, December 27, 1860, WOTR, 1:3.

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  “The telegram is correct” Anderson to Floyd, December 27, 1860, WOTR, 1:3.

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  Fort Sumter: Smoke and Cheers

  “The fort itself” Doubleday, Reminiscences, 100.

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  A prime example Oswald, “Building Fort Sumter,” 4.

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  The water closets drained Ferguson, “Fort Sumter,” 17.

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  “The quarters” Samuel Wylie Crawford, “Journal of Samuel Wylie Crawford,” n.d., Crawford Papers.

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  The exact origin Lewis, “Ambiguous Columbiads,” 111.

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  “that our flag might” There is some disagreement as to what song the band actually played. Historian Benson Lossing in his Pictorial History of the Civil War says it was “Hail Columbia”; Samuel Wylie Crawford says “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Crawford was there; I side with him. Lossing, Pictorial History, 131; Crawford, “Journal,” December 26, 1860.

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  “So completely” Thompson, “Union Soldier at Fort Sumter,” 99.

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  “Their looks were full of wrath” Doubleday, Reminiscences, 79; Crawford, Genesis of the Civil War, 109–11; Pettigrew to Pickens, December 27, 1860, Crawford Papers.

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  “I cannot express myself” Pettigrew to Pickens, December 27, 1860.

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  Washington: Blood and Dishonor

  “I knew his manner” Hunt, “Narrative and Letter of William Henry Trescot,” 544.

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  “It is evident now” Crawford, Genesis of the Civil War, 150.

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  “Good,” Black said Swanberg, “Was the Secretary of War a Traitor?,” 6.

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  “with a sparse white population” Hay and Nicolay, Abraham Lincoln, 3:73.

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  “Our refusal” Crawford, Genesis of the Civil War, 150–51.

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  “the first time” Hunt, “Narrative and Letter of William Henry Trescot,” 546.

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  “one true man” McPherson, Battle Cry, 265. For assorted other plaudits and requests, see Anderson Papers, vols. 9 and 11, documents 2020; 2040; 2034; 2036; 2012; 2037; 2476; 2301; 2048.

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  “If I withdraw Anderson” Hunt, “Narrative and Letter of William Henry Trescot,” 552.

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  Charleston Harbor: Turmoil

  “I am not crying” Doubleday, Reminiscences, 72–73.

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  “They can scale the walls” Thompson, “Union Soldier at Fort Sumter,” 100.

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  “There I found” White, “Evacuation of Fort Moultrie,” 4.

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  “Very few understood” Ibid.

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  “a great old horse fly” Muhlenfeld, Mary Boykin Chesnut, 116.

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  “with the earnest desire” R. W. Barnwell et al. to Buchanan, December 28, 1860, WOTR, 1:109.

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  “my first promptings were” Buchanan to Barnwell et al., December 31, 1860, WOTR, 1:118.

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  “This I cannot do” Ibid.

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  “By your course” Barnwell et al. to Buchanan, Jan.1, 1861, WOTR, 1:124.

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  “This paper, just presented” Memorandum, January 2, 1861, WOTR, 1:125.

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  Fort Sumter: Ominous Doings

  “I doubt not” Bellows, “Of Time and the City,” 169.

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  “to prevent irregular collisions” Pickens, memorandum, December 28, 1860, WOTR, 1:113.

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  “He knows not” Anderson to Cooper, December 28, 1860, WOTR, 1:113.

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  “one of consummate wisdom” Ibid., 1:112.

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  As the nation spiraled G. W. Lay to Larz Anderson, December 29, 1860, WOTR, 1:113–14; Scott to Buchanan, December 30, 1860, WOTR, 1:114.

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  “It is Sunday,” Scott wrote Scott to Buchanan, December 30, 1860, 1:114.

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  “As the insurgents” Doubleday, Reminiscences, 101.

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  “If we ascended to the parapet” Ibid., 100.

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  “Manage everything” Scott to Justin Dimick, December 31, 1860, WOTR, 1:119.

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  Springfield: The Real Danger

  “place-wanting cormorants” Villard, Lincoln on the Eve, 41.

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  “the capital would be” Nicklason, “Secession Winter,” 379–80.

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  The proslavery New York Herald Holzer, Lincoln President-Elect, 397.

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  “I would willingly take” Ibid., 171.

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  “Our only regret is” Ibid.

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  “A word fitly spoken” Lincoln, Collected Works, 4:160–61; Holzer, Lincoln President-Elect, 106, 177–78.

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  “a malformed ill-shaped ” Lehrman Institute, “Abraham Lincoln and Alexander H. Stephens,” 10.

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  “I could swallow him” Ibid., 9.

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  “When men come under” Lincoln, Collected Works, 4:160–61; Holzer, Lincoln President-Elect, 106, 177–78.

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  “due reflection” Holzer, Lincoln President-Elect, 181, 195.

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  “Habit has accustomed” Ibid. A variation of Seward’s letter appears in Ida M. Tarbell, “The Later Life of Lincoln,” McClure’s Magazine 7, no. 2 (December 1898), 169.

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  “show their faces ” Holzer, Lincoln President-Elect, 196.

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  “I have been considering” Lincoln, Collected Works, 4:170–71.

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  “If the two Houses refuse to meet” Ibid.

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  “Oh God save our dear City” Brevard, Plantation Mistress, 65.

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  “a fine clear and rather cool day” Adams, Diaries, January 1, 1861.

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  a “great mausoleum” Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 93.

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  “Holt succeeds Floyd” Wigfall to H. L. Bonham, January 2, 1861, WOTR, 1:252; Swanberg, First Blood, 122.

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  Part III: Precipice

  Philadelphia: Dorothea’s Warning

  she was tall and thin Gollaher, Voice for the Mad 2; Field, “Less Than Meets the Eye,” 392.