Civil War Battles and Strategy

Soon after the Confederate States of America was formed in early February 1861, it began to
take over federal forts, arsenals, and other property in the South. Only Fort Pickens in Pensacola,
Florida and Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina remained in federal hands. On the
morning after his inauguration, however, Lincoln received a February 28 report from Major
Robert Anderson at Ft. Sumter, warning that he needed reinforcements to maintain his
occupation of the fort.
Lincoln questioned General Winfield Scott, commander of the United States Army, about the
feasibility of reinforcing the fort in a letter dated March 9. On the 11th and 12th, Scott advised
that timely reinforcement was impossible and that Anderson should evacuate the fort. On the
13th, however, former Navy man Gustavus V. Fox met with Lincoln to recommend a plan for
reinforcing the fort. Lincoln called his cabinet together to discuss his options. A Search on Fort
Sumter provides numerous documents including the notes of Lincoln's cabinet members, such
as Secretary of State William H. Seward, who warned, "The dispatch of an expedition to supply
or reinforce Sumter would provoke an attack and so involve a war at that point." Secretary of the
Interior Caleb B. Smith reasoned:

"If it shall be understood that by its evacuation we intend to acknowledge our inability to enforce
the laws and our intention to allow treason & rebellion to run its course, the measure will be
extremely disastrous and the Administration will become very unpopular. If however the country
can be made to understand that the Ft is abandoned from necessity and at the same time Ft
Pickens & other forts in our possession shall be defended and the power of the Govt vindicated,
the measure will be popular & the country will sustain the Administration."
From "Caleb B. Smith, March 29, 1861 (Notes from cabinet meeting on Fort Sumter; endorsed
by Abraham Lincoln)."

"Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress." Library of Congress. N.p., n.d. Web. 28
July 2016. <http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/abrahamlincoln-papers/history5.html#skip_menu>.