“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.”
The gun tackle limits recoil using line, blocks & the strength of the gunwales to limit the backward motion of the gun, so that it can be brought back into battery as quickly as possible. Yes, the gunwales have to be strengthened to absorb the recoil of a 32 pounder.
“Ballast yes, but that ought to be fairly straightforward.”
Not really, how much room is available in the bilges & voids for the required weight. Can they use rocks, or does the space require lead ingots. What has to be done to secure the ballast to prevent it from moving with the roll and pitch of the ship. Not really straightforward.”
“Star of the West.” Not Lincoln’s project.
“they had been assured over and over that the fort would be turned over peacefully,”
When did the President of the United States assure the Confederate Government that Sumter would be turned over to them?
“probably had some inkling of Lincoln’s unofficial orders”
What would those orders have been?
“This makes it impossible to “resupply” a place that had never been “supplied”.
The Fort had been supplied when Anderson occupied it. He brought some guns and as much food as he could carry to support the troops in the Fort as long as possible.
After a while most of the provisions had been eaten up.
Lincoln’s plan was to provide rations for some months.
That was the objective of the mission.
Davis would not allow that to happen under any circumstance. He knew Anderson would surrender the fort rather than allow his troops to starve. Hence, Davis would allow absolutely no resupply of the fort. It didn’t make a difference if Lincoln had sent the entire U.S. Navy or a Girl Scout Troop in canoes to Sumter, he would authorize Beauregard to reduce the fort before he would allow any food into Sumter. The political pressure from South Carolina and the other Confederate States pretty much locked him into that action. Even if Davis had allowed the Fort to be reprovisioned, that would only kick the can a little further down the road.
The same porblem would arise in a couple of months. No, it really made not difference what Lincoln did, Davis would allow no resupply of Sumter under any circumstance.
True, but it still shows a willingness of the Washington DC government to lie and misrepresent their intentions.
When did the President of the United States assure the Confederate Government that Sumter would be turned over to them?
So far as I can tell, the President never did such a thing directly, but people who could presumably speak on the topic of the government's intentions certainly told them this. The Secretary of War under Buchanan had told them they would get the forts. The National Republican newspaper also said they would get the forts and they were considered to be the party mouth organ for that time period.
The official who was speaking to the delegates certainly led them to believe they were going to get the forts.
What would those orders have been?
The order given to Captain Mercer of the Powhatan was revealed and we have a record of it. The secret orders given to Lieutenant Porter have never again seen the light of day, but we can surmise from his behavior after having opened them what his orders were.
His actions had the effect of paralyzing the Charleston mission and insuring that it would never actually engage the confederates to the contradiction of the officially known orders of the expedition.
His belligerent acts upon reaching Pensacola also indicate that he apparently had carte blanche to start a war with the Confederates in Pensacola.
The Fort had been supplied when Anderson occupied it. He brought some guns and as much food as he could carry to support the troops in the Fort as long as possible.
That material was supplied to fort Moultrie. Nothing was supplied to fort Sumter, because the fort was still under construction when Anderson seized it from the workers.
Lincoln’s plan was to provide rations for some months. That was the objective of the mission.
Along with soldiers, munitions and various other capabilities of war. The idea that they loaded up the Baltic with soldiers with the intentions of simply sailing it back to New York is silly.
They loaded it up with soldiers to give the appearance that they intended to place those soldiers in the fort.
The force in Fort Sumter had no actual mission themselves, other than to force a confrontation with the Confederates over a fort which was absolutely useless to the Washington DC government.