[PeaRidge]

HOLD AND RETAKE.........NOTHING AS INNOCENT AS RESUPPLY...IN LINCOLN'S OWN WORDS;

12/12/1860 In an unprecedented action, Mr. Lincoln sent a secret message to his future subordinate Commander of the Army, General Winfield Scott.

From the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln , vol. 4

To Elihu B. Washburne

Confidential
Hon. E. B. Washburne Springfield, Ills., Dec. 21. 1860

My dear Sir:
Last night I received your letter giving an account of your interview with Gen. Scott, and for which I thank you. Please present my respects to the General, and tell him, confidentially, I shall be obliged to him to be as well prepared as he can to either hold, or retake, the forts, as the case may require, at, and after the inauguration.

Yours as ever
A. LINCOLN

Lincoln had begun to formulate a plan to seize Ft. Sumter and Ft. Barranas even before his inauguration, and was interfering with the current administration.

[rockrr]

Not to seize it but to retake it from hostile insurrectionists. Ft Sumter was a federal installation.

[DiogenesLamp]

Lincoln had begun to formulate a plan to seize Ft. Sumter and Ft. Barranas even before his inauguration, and was interfering with the current administration.

It seems apparent that he was planning to fight a long time before hostilities actually manifested.

People just don't want to believe that someone they were taught to admire was actually a deceitful manipulator.