The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

by Erik Larson

When Justice Campbell returned to the State Department on Monday, April 1—All Fools’ Day, as it was known then—to discuss Governor Pickens’s telegram about the promised evacuation of Fort Sumter, Secretary Seward wrote out a brief statement for Campbell to bring to the commissioners. “The President,” he wrote, “may desire to supply Fort Sumter, but will not undertake to do so without first giving notice to Governor Pickens.” The note startled Campbell. “What does this mean?” he asked. “Does the President design to supply Sumter?” “No, I think not,” Seward replied, despite knowing that concrete plans for a Sumter rescue were underway. “It is a very irksome thing to him to evacuate it. His ears are open to everyone, and they fill his head with schemes for its supply. I do not think that he will adopt any of them. There is no design to reinforce it.”