Excerpts-

• From the cover A Boat in the Dark
  
  The oars were audible before the boat came into view, this despite a noisy wind that coarsened the waters of the bay. It was very late on a black night. The rain, according to one account, “fell in torrents, and the wind howled weird-like and drearily.” In recent weeks the weather had been erratic: seductively vernal one day, bone-wrackingly cold the next. One morning there was snow. For a week a strong gale had scoured the coast. The four enslaved men rowing the boat made steady progress despite the wind and chop, and hauled their cargo—three white Confederate officers—with seeming ease. They covered the distance from Charleston to the fortress in about forty-five minutes. Until recently, a big lantern incorporating the latest in Fresnel lenses had capped the fort’s lighthouse, but in preparing for war, Army engineers had moved it. Now the lantern stood elevated on trestles at the center of the enclosed grounds, the “parade,” where it lit the interior faces of the surrounding fifty-foot walls and the rumps of giant cannon facing out through ground-level casemates. From afar, at night, in the mist, the light transformed the fortress into an immense cauldron steaming with pale smoke. The boat reached its wharf at twelve forty-five a.m., Friday, April 12, 1861, destined to be the single-most consequential day in American history.
  
  Over the last 113 days, the fort’s commander, Maj. Robert Anderson, and his garrison of U.S. Army regulars, along with a cadre of men under Capt. John G. Foster of the Army Corps of Engineers, had transformed it from a cluttered relic into an edifice of death and destruction. It was still drastically undermanned. Designed to be staffed by 650 soldiers, it now had only seventy-five, including officers, enlisted men, engineers, and members of the regimental band. But its guns were ready, nested within and atop its walls. Also, five large cannon had been mounted on makeshift platforms in the parade and pointed skyward to serve as mortars, these capable of throwing explosive shells into Charleston itself.
  
  In those 113 days, this fortress, named for Thomas Sumter, a Revolutionary War hero, had become a profoundly dangerous place to invade and could have resisted attack quite possibly forever, but for one fatal flaw: It was staffed by men, and men had to eat. The food supply, cut off by Confederate authorities, had dwindled to nearly nothing.
  
  Anderson was fifty-five years old, with a wife, Eliza (known universally as Eba), three daughters, and a one-year-old son, also named Robert. Anderson was clean-shaven, rare for the time, and this helped impart to his face a pleasant openness very unlike the hollow, axe-handle aspect of his Confederate opponent across the bay, his friend and former pupil Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, who had taken command of all South Carolina military activities. Their relationship was courteous and cordial, almost warm, despite Beauregard’s obvious willingness to kill Anderson and all his men if it meant furthering the cause of Southern independence.
  
  Anderson adored his family and mourned the separation from them that was so often required by the Army. Thanks to income from Eba’s family, they lived a life they could not have afforded on his salary alone. They owned a house on West Ninth Street in New York, but with Anderson’s rising notoriety, Eba and the children moved into the nearby Brevoort House hotel, a luxurious five-story structure on Fifth Avenue. Their daughters went to boarding school in New Jersey, a measure meant, apparently, to ease the burden of child-rearing for Eba, who suffered from an indeterminate...

Reviews-

• 

  Starred review from February 12, 2024
  In this twisty and cinematic account, bestseller Larson (The Splendid and the Vile) recreates the five-month period between Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 election and the outbreak of the Civil War, focusing on the intensifying showdown over Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C., where Maj. Robert Anderson, the U.S. Army commander, faced a swelling Confederate force with his outgunned garrison of 75 soldiers. Larson mirrors Anderson’s struggle to hold his post while avoiding provocations that might lead to war with Lincoln’s tight-rope-walk attempt to stand firm against secession without goading the South into it. As he traveled to Washington, D.C., to take office—arriving in disguise after dodging a rumored assassination plot in Baltimore—Lincoln vacillated over whether to resupply Fort Sumter or surrender it. In Larson’s telling, Anderson’s ordeal makes for a superb war story—his secret Christmastime redeployment from Charleston’s indefensible Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, for instance, emerges as a masterpiece of psychological deception. The author probes the Southern perspective as well—via acerbic diarist Mary Chesnut among others—and assesses the ideologies and errors that birthed the Civil War, including a violent pro-slavery mob’s efforts to stop Congress from certifying Lincoln’s Electoral College victory. The result is a mesmerizing and disconcerting look at an era when consensus dissolved into deadly polarization. Photos.

• This compelling audiobook about the beginning of the Civil War gains resonance from its parallels with today's divisions and drift toward violence. Will Patton's narration fits Larson's authorial voice, which is frank, factual, and artfully judicious in tone. Patton suggests historical voices, but his delivery is nuanced and understated, never showy. Brief chapters track the months leading up to the assault on Fort Sumter. The inactivity of the outgoing Buchanan administration, the separate preparations for defense and for attack in Charleston Harbor, Lincoln's arrival in disguise at the nation's capital--everything marks a widening separation. The attack on Fort Sumter is usually seen as a mere curtain-raiser, a spark that could have ignited a dozen different places. This outstanding audiobook tells a very different story. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
• 

  August 9, 2024
  

  Will Patton artfully narrates Larson's (The Splendid and the Vile) latest historical epic, tracing the five months following Abraham Lincoln's 1861 election and the lead-up to the Civil War. Larson's introduction booms with a striking parallel between today's political divisiveness and the specter of violence that led to the nation's most brutal conflict. Patton's hallmark South Carolina drawl adds depth to this exploration of the Battle of Fort Sumter, capturing the grand narrative and intricate details. Larson emphasizes that enslavement is central to the conflict, though the voices of enslaved people are absent from the narrative. Instead, secessionist leaders, Northern power brokers, and Carolina aristocrats such as Major Robert Anderson, Edmund Ruffin, William Seward, and Mary Chestnut dominate the narrative, with their perspectives drawn from extensive historical writings. Patton's performance is as meticulous as Larson's descriptions, capturing the emotional undercurrents and giving voice to a large cast of characters. His pacing aligns seamlessly with Larson's cascade of events and ideas. While generally well-performed, Patton's portrayal of women's voices occasionally comes across as saccharine. Larson himself provides a measured, clear reading of the author's note and the closing acknowledgments. VERDICT Listeners seeking historical insights will enjoy this skillfully executed audiobook and should find that Patton's narration suits the text.--Lizzie Nolan

  Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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