82 pages • 2 hours read
Erik LarsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Mary Chesnut continued her flirtation with John Manning, to the increasing irritation of Mary’s husband James. As March closed, William Seward found himself in a difficult position. He had told the Confederate commissioners that Fort Sumter would soon surrender, but now Lincoln had adopted the opposite plan.
As April began, Seward continued to delay the Confederate commissioners, telling their intermediary that Lincoln was still planning to surrender Fort Sumter, even though he knew that wasn’t the case. Seward still wanted the government to surrender the fort to help smooth things over with the South and get the states to consider re-joining the Union. He sent a self-aggrandizing memorandum to Lincoln outlining his proposal, which Lincoln rejected. Supreme Court Justice Campbell—the intermediary between Seward and the Confederate commissioners—now wrote a letter directly to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, advising him to be patient and wait for Fort Sumter’s surrender. This improper communication between a servant of the US government and a rebel leader was an early sign that Campbell would later become the Confederacy’s Assistant Secretary of War.
By Erik Larson
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing Of The Lusitania
Erik Larson
In the Garden of Beasts
Erik Larson
Isaac's Storm
Erik Larson
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
Erik Larson
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
Erik Larson
Thunderstruck
Erik Larson