Philadelphia Press, January 15, 1861
It would be proper, we suppose, to prohibit coast-wise trade to and from the ports of South Carolina, whilst she is in her present attitude of armed defiance of the United States. In the enforcement of the revenue laws, the forts become of primary importance. Their guns cover just so much ground as is necessary to enable the United States to enforce their laws.
Abner Doubleday, brevet Major-General, U.S.A., "From Moultrie to Sumter".
We believed that in the event of an outbreak from Charleston few of us would survive; but it did not greatly concern us, since that risk was merely a part of our business, and we intended to make the best fight we could. The officers, upon talking the matter over, thought they might control any demonstration at Charleston by throwing shells into the city from Castle Pinckney.
You may think those fortresses posed no threat to the confederacy or to Charleston, but I think people looked at it differently when they lived under the guns of those forts.
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Lincoln wasn't trying to force anyone to accept his terms. He was trying to keep the fort in federal hands and operational.
The fort had never been operational. It had never even been manned until Anderson commandeered a ship to sail him over to it in the middle of the night.
That made it extremely unlikely that the fort would fire into the city.
And if Fort Sumter was never operational that made the decision to destroy it that much more puzzling.