Mary Chesnut: The Firing on Ft. Sumter
Mary Chesnut: The Firing on Ft. Sumter
by Mary Boykin Chesnut from A Diary from Dixie
Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut (1823-1886) was a prominent woman from South Carolina. Her husband,
James Chesnut, was a U.S. Senator before the Civil War. Well-educated, intelligent, and well-connected,
Mary understood, as the Civil War began, she had a front row seat to a historic moment in history. She
began recording the events in her life in February 1861.
After South Carolina seceded from the Union in December 1860, much attention was directed at Ft.
Sumter, a U.S. sea fort on an island in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The Confederate troops
built batteries, or positions for large guns and cannons, along the shore facing Ft. Sumter. In April of 1861,
James Chesnut, now a colonel in the Confederate army, met with the Ft. Sumter commander, Major Robert
Anderson, to demand the surrender of Ft. Sumter to the Confederacy. Anderson declined. The resulting
events would start the Civil War.
This passage from Mary's diary on April 12, 1861 covers the events of the firing of Ft. Sumter by the
Confederate troops from her vantage point in Charleston. President Davis is Jefferson Davis, president of
the Confederacy. Beauregard is General P.G.T. Beauregard, commanding officer of the Charleston troops.
-------------------------April 12th. –Anderson will not capitulate. Yesterday’s was the merriest, maddest dinner we have had yet.
Men were audaciously wise and witty. We had an unspoken foreboding that it was to be our last pleasant
meeting. Mr. Miles dined with us to-day. Mrs. Henry King rushed in saying, “The news, I come for the latest
news. All the men of the King family are on the Island,” of which fact she seemed proud.
While she was here our peace negotiator, or envoy, came in–that is, Mr. Chesnut returned. His interview
with Colonel Anderson had been deeply interesting, but Mr. Chesnut was not inclined to be communicative.
He wanted his dinner. He felt for Anderson and had telegraphed to President Davis for instructions–what
answer to give Anderson, etc. He has now gone back to Fort Sumter with additional instructions. When
they were about to leave the wharf A. H. Boykin sprang into the boat in great excitement. He thought
himself ill-used, with a likelihood of fighting and he to be left behind!
I do not pretend to go to sleep. How can I? If Anderson does not accept terms at four, the orders are, he
shall be fired upon. I count four St. Michael's bells chime out and I begin to hope. At half-past four the heavy
booming of a cannon. I sprang out of bed, and on my knees prostrate I prayed as I never prayed before.
There was a sound of stir all over the house, pattering of feet in the corridors. All seemed hurrying one way.
I put on my double-gown and a shawl and went, too. It was to the housetop. The shells were bursting. In
the dark I heard a man say, “Waste of ammunition.” I knew my husband was rowing about in a boat
somewhere in that dark bay, and that the shells were roofing it over, bursting toward the fort. If Anderson
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Mary Chesnut: The Firing on Ft. Sumter
was obstinate, Colonel Chesnut was to order the fort on one side to open fire. Certainly fire had begun. The
regular roar of the cannon, there it was. And who could tell what each volley accomplished of death and
destruction?
The women were wild there on the housetop. Prayers came from the women and imprecations from the
men. And then a shell would light up the scene. To-night they say the forces are to attempt to land. We
watched up there, and everybody wondered that Fort Sumter did not fire a shot.
To-day Miles and Manning, colonels now, aides to Beauregard, dined with us. The latter hoped I would
keep the peace. I gave him only good words, for he was to be under fire all day and night, down in the bay
carrying orders, etc.
Last night, or this morning truly, up on the housetop I was so weak and weary I sat down on something that
looked like a black stool. “Get up, you foolish woman. Your dress is on fire,” cried a man. And he put me
out. I was on a chimney and the sparks had caught my clothes. Susan Preston and Mr. Venable then came
up. But my fire had been extinguished before it burst out into a regular blaze.
Do you know, after all that noise and our tears and prayers, nobody has been hurt; sound and fury
signifying nothing -- a delusion and a snare.
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Mary Chesnut: The Firing on Ft. Sumter
Questions
1. What does audaciously mean here: "Men were audaciously wise and witty"
2. Mary says, "We had an unspoken foreboding that it was to be our last pleasant meeting." Why would it
be the last pleasant meeting?
3. What does Mary begin to hope for when the church bells chime four times?
4. Mary Chesnut references Shakespeare's Macbeth when she says "sound and fury signifying nothing."
What do you think she means?
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Mary Chesnut: The Firing on Ft. Sumter
Vocabulary List
Each of the vocabulary words below are used in the reading passage. As you read the passage, pay
attention to context clues that suggest the word’s meaning.
1. capitulate
2. witty
3. communicative
4. imprecations
5. weary
6. extinguished
7. snare
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Mary Chesnut: The Firing on Ft. Sumter
Context Clues
Using context clues from the sentences in the passage, underline the correct meaning of the word in
boldface.
1) “Anderson will not capitulate.”
a. continue
b. worry
c. fight
d. surrender
2) “Men were audaciously wise and witty.”
a. loud
b. funny
c. demanding
d. irritable
3) “His interview with Colonel Anderson had been deeply interesting, but Mr. Chesnut was not inclined to be
communicative.”
a. talkative
b. helpful
c. energetic
d. cooperative
4) “Prayers came from the women and imprecations from the men.”
a. wishes
b. screams
c. insults
d. curses
5) “Last night, or this morning truly, up on the housetop I was so weak and weary I sat down on something
that looked like a black stool.”
a. sleepy
b. alert
c. hungry
d. worried
6) “But my fire had been extinguished before it burst out into a regular blaze.”
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Mary Chesnut: The Firing on Ft. Sumter
a. started
b. tamed
c. contained
d. put out
7) “Do you know, after all that noise and our tears and prayers, nobody has been hurt; sound and fury
signifying nothing -- a delusion and a snare.”
a. dream
b. hallucination
c. trap
d. memory
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