He in fact did, albeit with a catch. They were to be led by the Powhatan, which he deliberately detached without telling them, so as to render them incapable of fulfilling the attack portion of their orders. It left them poised menacingly in a staging position, but with no actual possibility of them engaging in the attack which their orders would have required had the Powhatan showed up.
Lincoln was not a stupid man. He had already been told that it would take far more force than this to effectively succor Sumter, and various experts predicted those ships would have been cut to pieces by the Confederate battalions arrayed against them.
The Fleet's orders would have been suicide had they actually followed them. Every ship would have been sunk, and most of the men on them killed, and Lincoln and his Generals knew this, because Anderson had sent them as much information as he could about the Confederate gun emplacements around the harbor.
Lincoln's actions in deliberately sending the Powhatan elsewhere is the only thing that saved the lives of those men on board those ships.
One can only believe he never intended for those men to be killed. They were only intended to create a provocation for which he could initiate a war.
Your whole conspiracy theory is about as luny as any I can imagine.
Occam's razor says it was a simple screw-up, no serious reason to think otherwise.
DiogenesLamp: "It left them poised menacingly in a staging position, but with no actual possibility of them engaging in the attack which their orders would have required had the Powhatan showed up."
And that's a lie, and you well know it.
Lincoln's orders were not to attack anybody: no first use of force, so long as they were not attacked.
And the more important point is this: even with Powhatan's misdirection, Lincoln's resupply mission was far from doomed to fail.
All success needed was the combination of calm seas and cover of darkness to deliver their supplies to Fort Sumter.
And that's just what they had Saturday night, April 13, the day after Anderson surrendered.
Had Anderson held out a little longer, Lincoln's resupply mission could have been completed as intended and his "battle fleet" returned to their base.
Of course, with Confederates going berserk, there's no telling what future consequences might have been, doubtless not happy for the good Major & his troops.
But the decision to surrender was Anderson's alone, Lincoln did what he could to help.
DiogenesLamp: "The Fleet's orders would have been suicide had they actually followed them.
Every ship would have been sunk, and most of the men on them killed, and Lincoln and his Generals knew this..."
Total nonsense, cover of darkness & calm seas would allow boats to deliver supplies to Anderson unmolested.
Mission accomplished.
DiogenesLamp: "One can only believe he never intended for those men to be killed.
They were only intended to create a provocation for which he could initiate a war."
Riiiiiight.
And there was no moon landing, Area 51 is full aliens and 9/11 was an inside job.
You know, for some people the facts just won't satisfy, got to be something more...