April 17, 1861
In the weeks and months leading up to the fall of Fort Sumter, the South had been brimming with excitement for the future. Charleston, South Carolina—with newly taken Fort Sumter in its harbor—was leading the South into that future both through its rhetoric and through its actions. Enthusiasm was abound for what had happened and what was to come. Three days after the southerners chased the northerners out of that fort, Charleston was bubbling over with joy. The city—the South, for that matter—was ebullient.
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Last Best Hope of Earth 