“You contend that after Sumter, they quickly reinforced the decks to carry the weight of a cannon, and maybe this is true, but at this point it is not unreasonable to think the Thomas Freeborn had a cannon on it prior to the Sumter Mission.”
Not only do you have to reinforce the deck to support a 7,000 pound gun, you have to reinforce the bulkheads to absorb the recoil and you have to add a few tons of ballast below the waterline to compensate for the increased weight on the main deck. In addition they would have to construct a magazine for the safe storage of gun powder. The work could be done in a Navy Yard in a week or so. After Sumter, a week in the navy yard then on to operations late in April or early in May.
“Lincoln’s goal was to create the illusion of a force attacking the Confederates to goad the Confederates into starting the war, while at the same time convince the people up in the North that it was a “peaceful mission” with no belligerent intent.”
If Lincoln’s goal was to create an illusion of a force attacking the Confederates, why did he send Pickens a telegram stating that force would be used only if the Confederates resisted the reprovision of the Fort, that no guns or men would be landed. Why did Welles tell Mercer in his orders that if the Confederates allowed the peaceful resupply of the for with provisions, the war ships were to return to their ports. Why did Cameron tell Fox that the objective was to resupply the fort with provisions, force to be used only if the resisted the resupply effort. Strange Confederate intelligence learned an armada with marines and infantry was on the way, but none of the confederate agents in the War or Navy Departments picked up on the orders issued to the officers carrying out the mission.
None of this would make a difference anyway. Davis was not going to allow Sumter to be resupplied by anyone. If a troop of Girl Scouts showed up in open canoes carrying provisions for Sumter he would have ordered Beauregard to reduce the fort before the Girl Scouts could paddle their canoes into Charleston Harbor.
Wait. The gun has wheels on it. Doesn't it roll backwards, and therefore not much recoil is transmitted to the bulkheads? I think they use ropes to keep it from rolling too far, and the ropes have some springiness to them, so I don't know about reinforcing the bulkheads being a needful thing.
Ballast yes, but that ought to be fairly straightforward.
If Lincoln’s goal was to create an illusion of a force attacking the Confederates, why did he send Pickens a telegram stating that force would be used only if the Confederates resisted the reprovision of the Fort, that no guns or men would be landed.
Political cover for his "Peaceful Mission" illusion for the Northern side. The confederates weren't going to believe a d@mn thing he said after that attempted trick with the Brooklyn and the Star of the West.
Also they had been assured over and over that the fort would be turned over peacefully, and they wake up one morning with cannon carriages burning at Fort Moultrie and an apparently hostile force holding the cannons overlooking their city.
They weren't going to trust him, and indeed, Beauregard believed there was going to be an invasion force.
Why did Cameron tell Fox that the objective was to resupply the fort with provisions, force to be used only if the resisted the resupply effort.
You mention Fox, and the Confederates let him consult with Major Anderson only because Fox lied to them. By the time of the Charleston expedition, they had learned that Fox had lied to them, so it was more proof the Washington Government could not be trusted.
Strange Confederate intelligence learned an armada with marines and infantry was on the way, but none of the confederate agents in the War or Navy Departments picked up on the orders issued to the officers carrying out the mission.
They certainly picked up on the official orders, and they probably had some inkling of Lincoln's unofficial orders because they certainly expected a bigger force than what arrived. In my looking up information about the buildup to the civil war, I ran across a telegram message sent in March from Washington DC to the Confederates telling them that a build up of ships was underway, and to expect it.
This was before any official orders of which I have so far seen.
None of this would make a difference anyway. Davis was not going to allow Sumter to be resupplied by anyone.
A quibble here. Sumter was never "supplied" in the first place. There was no official orders to place anyone there, and so there was never any "supplies" there to begin with.
This makes it impossible to "resupply" a place that had never been "supplied". :)
And no, Davis was never going to consent to the placement of a potentially hostile foreign force at the entrance of one of their most important ports, especially after Northern newspapers had already called for the guns of Sumter to be turned on Charleston.