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Authors: Steven Woodworth
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the harbor while a supply ship carried in the needed rations. If the Rebels opened fire, then Powhatan and the smaller warships, such as ten-gun steam sloop of war USS Pawnee , would, in theory at least, shoot their way into the harbor and see to the insertion not only of rations but of additional troops as well. A Union agent would alert Anderson of the expedition’s approach so that the fort’s garrison could cooperate with its own heavy guns. At the same time, a letter from Lincoln went to South Carolina Governor Francis W. Pickens (pointedly not to Jefferson Davis, whose office as president of the self-styled Confederate States Lincoln did not recognize), blandly informing him that an expedition would be resupplying Fort Sumter and that no shot would be fired or any troops, guns, or ammunition inserted unless the attempt was resisted.
Meanwhile, Seward was playing a deep game of his own. Convinced that the southern states could somehow be convinced to give up the idea of secession if only they were placated about Fort Sumter, he had entered into an indirect, unofficial, and completely unauthorized negotiation with several Confederate commissioners whom Davis had sent to Washington for that purpose. Seward hinted broadly to the Confederate agents that Fort Sumter would be abandoned, a decision he had no authority to make. When he learned of Lincoln’s authorization of Fox’s plan to resupply the fort, Seward drew up an order that he cunningly got Lincoln to sign without knowing what it was, diverting Powhatan to other duty. When Lincoln discovered the move and ordered Seward to revoke the order, Seward did so over his own signature. The ship’s commander obeyed the order signed by the president rather than that signed by the secretary of state, and before Lincoln could discover this second subterfuge, Powhatan was beyond recall and unavailable for the expedition.
Lincoln could see little choice but to go ahead with the expedition anyway. It lacked the firepower now to shoot its way into the harbor, but the attempt to insert the unarmed supply ship was the last chance for preserving peace and Union by maintaining the status quo in Charleston harbor. Lincoln knew that, given the aggressiveness of the southern leadership, the chance for peace was slim, but he had to try. There was little else for him to do other than accept the dismemberment of the United States, and that he would not do.
On receiving Lincoln’s notification of the planned relief expedition, Governor Pickens had immediately forwarded it to Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, the Confederate capital. Davis was determined to have Fort Sumter as a symbol of Confederate sovereignty. He hoped to get it peaceably but was quite willing to do so by force if necessary. On learning that the relief expedition was on the way, he ordered the commander of the Confederate forces ringing Charleston harbor, Louisianan Pierre G. T. Beauregard, to demand the fort’s immediate surrender and, if that were refused, to blast it into submission.
Beauregard was a veteran of the prewar U.S. Army who, like many southern officers, had resigned his commission when his state seceded and taken a commission in the new Confederate army. An 1838 graduate of West Point, where Robert Anderson had been his artillery instructor, Beauregard was a skillful military engineer who had supervised the arrangement of dozens of batteries of Confederate guns trained on Fort Sumter.
In response to Davis’s order, Beauregard, on the afternoon of April 11, 1861, sent a trio of staff officers in a small boat with a flag of truce to demand Anderson’s surrender. The leader of the Confederate delegation was Colonel James Chesnut, until a few months earlier a U.S. senator from South Carolina. To Chesnut’s summons to surrender, Anderson replied that his orders would not allow him to give up the fort at that time but that if the Confederates waited long enough, lack of provisions would force him to do so.
Meanwhile, Seward was playing a deep game of his own. Convinced that the southern states could somehow be convinced to give up the idea of secession if only they were placated about Fort Sumter, he had entered into an indirect, unofficial, and completely unauthorized negotiation with several Confederate commissioners whom Davis had sent to Washington for that purpose. Seward hinted broadly to the Confederate agents that Fort Sumter would be abandoned, a decision he had no authority to make. When he learned of Lincoln’s authorization of Fox’s plan to resupply the fort, Seward drew up an order that he cunningly got Lincoln to sign without knowing what it was, diverting Powhatan to other duty. When Lincoln discovered the move and ordered Seward to revoke the order, Seward did so over his own signature. The ship’s commander obeyed the order signed by the president rather than that signed by the secretary of state, and before Lincoln could discover this second subterfuge, Powhatan was beyond recall and unavailable for the expedition.
Lincoln could see little choice but to go ahead with the expedition anyway. It lacked the firepower now to shoot its way into the harbor, but the attempt to insert the unarmed supply ship was the last chance for preserving peace and Union by maintaining the status quo in Charleston harbor. Lincoln knew that, given the aggressiveness of the southern leadership, the chance for peace was slim, but he had to try. There was little else for him to do other than accept the dismemberment of the United States, and that he would not do.
On receiving Lincoln’s notification of the planned relief expedition, Governor Pickens had immediately forwarded it to Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, the Confederate capital. Davis was determined to have Fort Sumter as a symbol of Confederate sovereignty. He hoped to get it peaceably but was quite willing to do so by force if necessary. On learning that the relief expedition was on the way, he ordered the commander of the Confederate forces ringing Charleston harbor, Louisianan Pierre G. T. Beauregard, to demand the fort’s immediate surrender and, if that were refused, to blast it into submission.
Beauregard was a veteran of the prewar U.S. Army who, like many southern officers, had resigned his commission when his state seceded and taken a commission in the new Confederate army. An 1838 graduate of West Point, where Robert Anderson had been his artillery instructor, Beauregard was a skillful military engineer who had supervised the arrangement of dozens of batteries of Confederate guns trained on Fort Sumter.
In response to Davis’s order, Beauregard, on the afternoon of April 11, 1861, sent a trio of staff officers in a small boat with a flag of truce to demand Anderson’s surrender. The leader of the Confederate delegation was Colonel James Chesnut, until a few months earlier a U.S. senator from South Carolina. To Chesnut’s summons to surrender, Anderson replied that his orders would not allow him to give up the fort at that time but that if the Confederates waited long enough, lack of provisions would force him to do so.
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