Excuse ME. The Confederates started the war by firing on a United States fort - Sumter. Read your history books. I am certain they mention this detail.
And whic is it? "Never surrender" ala Washington or "We wuz outgunned!". Cannot have it both ways. More cognitive dissonance from Neoconfederates.
This entry in the ship's log of the USS Supply is for the night prior to the events at Fort Sumter. It documents an invasion force landing in Florida, in violation of the existing armistice, before the events in South Carolina.
USS SUPPLY SHIPS LOG - APRIL 11, 1861
210 OPERATIONS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO.Abstract log of the U. S. sbip Supply, January 9 to June 14, 1861, Commander Henry Walke, commanding.
April 11. -- At 9 p. m. the Brooklyn got Underway and stood in toward the harbor, and during the night landed the troops and marines on board, to reenforce Fort Pickens.
There can be no doubt that Lincoln waited for the Senate to adjourn and began a war.
Within 8 days of taking office, orders of March 12, 1861 issued from the Lincoln administration to reinforce Fort Pickens and thereby violate the armistice that was in effect. These orders to Army Captain Vogdes were delayed until after the Senate adjourned on March 28, 1861 and then delivered by USS Crusader on March 31, 1861. Capt. Vogdes delivered them to Navy Captain Adams on April 1, 1861. Capt. Adams refused to comply with the orders.
OPERATIONS IN FLORIDA.
[CHAP. IV.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
Washington, March 12, 1861.Captain VOGDES, U. S. Army,
On board U. S. sloop-of-war Brooklyn, lying off Port Pickens:SIR: At the first favorable moment you will land with your company, re-enforce Fort Pickens, and hold the same till further orders. Report frequently, if opportunities present themselves, on the condition of the fort and the circumstances around you.
I write by command of Lieutenant-General Scott.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-General.To: Captain I. Vogdes,
First Artiller, U. S. Army
on board Ship of War Brooklyn
off Fort Pickens,
Pensacola, Fla."
Delivery of these orders was delayed until after the Senate adjourned on March 28, 1861. They were delivered via USS Crusader to Capt. Vogdes, off Pensacola, on March 31, 1861, and by Capt. Vogdes to Navy Capt. Adams on April 1, 1861. Capt. Adams refused to comply with the orders, see below.
This the end of the Senate Journal for March 28, 1861:
Mr. Powell, from the committee appointed to wait on the President of the United States and inform him that, unless he may have any further communication to make, the Senate is now ready to close the present session by an adjournment, reported that they had performed the duty assigned them, and that the President replied that he had no further communication to make.Mr. Foster submitted the following resolution:
Resolved, That the Senate will adjourn without day at four o'clock this afternoon.
The Senate proceeded by unanimous consent to consider the said resolution; and, having been amended on the motion of Mr. Hale, it was agreed to as follows:
Resolved, That the Senate do now adjourn without day.
Whereupon
The President pro tempore declared the Senate adjourned without day.
Lincoln did not fail to obtain Congressional approval because Congress was not in session, he waited until Congress adjourned and commenced to initiate a war.
March 29, 1861
To the Secretary of the Navy
I desire that an expedition, to move by sea be go ready to sail as early as the 6th of April next, the whole according to memorandum attached: and that you co-operate with the Secretary of War for that object.
Signed: Abraham Lincoln
The memorandum attached called for:
From the Navy, three ships of war, the Pocahontas, the Pawnee and the Harriet Lane; and 300 seamen, and one month's stores.
From the War Department, 200 men, ready to leave garrison; and one year's stores.
April 1, 1861 by General Scott
April 2, 1861 approved by Abraham Lincoln
To: Brevet Colonel Harvey Brown, U.S. Army
You have been designated to take command of an expedition to reinforce and hold Fort Pickens in the harbor of Pensacola. You will proceed to New York where steam transportation for four companies will be engaged; -- and putting on board such supplies as you can ship without delay proceed at once to your destination. The object and destination of this expedition will be communicated to no one to whom it is not already known. Signed: Winfield Scott
Signed approved: Abraham Lincoln
April 4, 1861
To: Lieut. Col. H.L. Scott, Aide de Camp
This will be handed to you by Captain G.V. Fox, an ex-officer of the Navy. He is charged by authority here, with the command of an expedition (under cover of certain ships of war) whose object is, to reinforce Fort Sumter.
To embark with Captain Fox, you will cause a detachment of recruits, say about 200, to be immediately organized at fort Columbus, with competent number of officers, arms, ammunition, and subsistence, with other necessaries needed for the augmented garrison at Fort Sumter.
Signed: Winfield Scott
Herewith I send you a copy of an order received by me last night. You will see by it that I am directed to land my command at the earliest opportunity. I have therefore to request that you will place at my disposal such boats and other means as will enable me to carry into effect the enclosed order.
Signed: I. Vogdes, Capt. 1st Artly. Comdg.
Captain Adams REFUSED TO OBEY THE ORDER and reported to the Secretary of the Navy as follows:
The instructions from General Scott to Captain Vogdes are of old date (March 12) and may have been given without a full knowledge of the condition of affairs here.
It would be considered not only a declaration but an act of war; and would be resisted to the utmost.
Both sides are faithfully observing the agreement (armistice) entered into by the United States Government and Mr. Mallory and Colonel Chase, which binds us not to reinforce Fort Pickens unless it shall be attacked or threatened. It binds them not to attack it unless we should attempt to reinforce it.
The Secretary of the Navy issued a CLASSIFIED response to Capt. Adams:
April 6, 1861
Your dispatch of April 1st is received. The Department regrets that you did not comply with the request of Capt. Vogdes. You will immediately on the first favorable opportunity after receipt of this order, afford every facility to Capt. Vogdes to enable him to land the troops under his command, it being the wish and intention of the Navy Department to co-operate with the War Department, in that object.
Signed: Gideon Welles, Secty. of the Navy
April 11, 1861 (USS Supply, official ship's log)
"April 11th at 9 P.M. the Brooklyn got under way and stood in toward the harbor; and during the night landed troops and marines on board, to reinforce Fort Pickens."
April 1, 1861 To: Lt. D.D. Porter, USN
You will proceed to New York and with least possible delay assume command of any steamer available.
Proceed to Pensacola Harbor, and, at any cost or risk, prevent any expedition from the main land reaching Fort Pickens, or Santa Rosa.
You will exhibit this order to any Naval Officer at Pensacola, if you deem it necessary, after you have established yourself within the harbor.
This order, its object, and your destination will be communicated to no person whatever, until you reach the harbor of Pensacola.
Signed: Abraham Lincoln
Recommended signed: Wm. H. Seward
April 1, 1861
Telegram
To: Commandant, Brooklyn Navy Yard
Fit out Powhatan to go to sea at the earliest possible moment, under sealed orders. Orders by confidential messenger go forward tomorrow.
Signed: Abraham Lincoln
April 1, 1861
To: Commandant, Brooklyn Navy Yard
You will fit out the Powhatan without delay. Lieutenant Porter will relieve Captain Mercer in command of her. She is bound on secret service; and you will under no circumstances communicate to the Navy Department the fact that she is fitting out.
Signed: Abraham Lincoln
The Secretary of the Navy was unaware that President Lincoln had relieved Captain Mercer and was "borrowing" the Powhatan. It was a real secret mission.
April 1, 1861
Telegram
To: Commandant, Brooklyn Navy Yard
Fit out Powhatan to go to sea at earliest possible moment.
April 5, 1861
To: Captain Mercer, Commanding Officer, USS Powhatan
The U.S. Steamers, Powhatan, Pawnee, Pocahontas, and Harriet Lane, will compose a naval force under your command, to be sent to the vicinity of Charleston, S.C., for the purpose of aiding in carrying out the object of an expedition of which the war Department has charge. The expedition has been intrusted to Captain G.V. Fox.
You will leave New York with the Powhatan in time to be off Charleston bar, 10 miles distant from and due east of the light house on the morning of the 11th instant, there to await the arrival of the transports with troops and stores. The Pawnee and Pocahontas will be ordered to join you there, at the time mentioned, and also the Harriet Lane, etc.
Signed: Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy
April 6, 1861
Lt. Porter took the Powhatan and sailed.
Seward sent a telegram to Porter: "Give the Powhatan up to Captain Mercer."
A dispatch boat caught up with Powhatan and delivered Seward's message.
Lt. Porter responded to Seward: "I received my orders from the President, and shall proceed and execute them.
Before leaving, Lt. Porter instructed the Navy Yard officials, "Detain all letters for five days."
Storms and boiler problems delayed Powhatan, but she arrived disguised and flying English colors.
Porter filed this report:
I had disguised the ship, so that she deceived those who had known her, and was standing in (unnoticed), when the Wyandotte commenced making signals, which I did not answer, but stood on.
The steamer then put herself in my way and Captain Meigs, who was aboard, hailed me and I stopped.
In twenty minutes more I should have been inside (Pensacola harbor) or sunk.
Signed: D.D. Porter
There is an interesting sequence of events.
COURT DECISIONS and the judicially determined start of the WBTS
Phillips vs. Hatch, 1 Dillon 571
U.S. vs. Anderson, 9 Wall 56, 71
the case of the Protector, 12 Wall. 700
These are citations within the text of a book. I have not seen the decisions themselves.
James G. Randall, "Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln," Revised Edition, pp. 49-50.
When one remembers, however, the legal importance of the distinction between a state of war and a state of peace, the necessity of fixing some legal date for the opening of the war will be recognized. War and peace being antagonistic legal conditions which cannot coexist, some definite point of time had to be selected which would mark the termination of the one and the beginning of the other.The actual fixing of such a time rested with the President and Congress, but the judicial department found the matter of such importance in the determination of controversides that it was necessarily called upon to define the period of the war. [1] In its search for some public act to mark the legal opening of the war, the court selected the President's two proclamations of blockade (the of the 19th of April, 1861 applying to South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas; and that of April 27th applying to Virginia and North Carolina) and declared that these were the dates at which the legal state of war began for the states concerned.
Two presidential proclamations were also held to have determined the legal close of the war: the proclamation of Arpil 2, 1866, declaring the insurrection to be at an end in every State except Texas, and the final proclamation of August 20, 1866, declaring the insurrection to have ceased in every State. It will thus be seen that the legal termination of the war followed about a year after its effective termination through the military surrenders of Lee and Johnston.
[1] Phillips vs. Hatch, 1 Dillon 571; U.S. vs. Anderson, 9 Wall 56, 71
[2] The decision as to both the beginning and the end of the war was made in the case of the Protector, 12 Wall. 700. The question at issue was whether an appeal from a decree of the United States Circuit Court for Louisiana should be allowed, a motion having been brought from the United States Circuit Court for the southern district of Alabama that the appeal be dismissed. As the law stood, appeals had to be brought within five years from the time of the decree complained of. The decree in this case was rendered April 5, 1861, and the appeal taken on May 17, 1871. Since the statute of limitations did not run during the "rebellion," it was necessary for the court to ascertain the exact duration of the war in order to determine the period to be deducted in calculating the amount of time that had elapsed. The court decided that the war began in Alabama on April 19, 1861, and ended April 2, 1866. It was thus found that, disregarding the war, more than five years had elapsed, and the appeal was therefore denied. Several points in this decision are worth noting: (1) The court chose the proclamations of blockade rather than the proclamation calling out the militia as the opening date. (2) It was the President's act, rather than any act of Congress, that was selected. The minority of the court, however, in the Prize Cases, thought that the war legally began on July 13, 1861, when Congress recognized the insurrection. (3) The war was held to have begun in different States at different times. Neither of the above-mentioned proclamations of blockade applied to Tennessee or Arkansas. It would appear that the first proclamation declaring an insurrection in those two States was that of August 16, 1861, in which all the eleven States of the Confederacy were declared in insurrection and commercial intercourse with them prohibited. (4) While holding that the President's proclamation of blockade served to mark the legal beginning of the war, the court held elsewhere (in the Prize Gases) that the President, in proclaiming the blockade and doing other things to meet the emergency, was not creating a war, but was merely taking measures to protect the United States in a war that was thrust upon the Government. The few days between the firing of Confederate guns on Fort Sumter and the President's proclamation of blockade were disregarded by the Supreme Court in judicially defining the opening date; and yet in the Treaty of Washington (concerning wartime claims against Great Britain) the commencement of the war was fixed at April 13, 1861. For a legal discussion of the beginning and ending of the war, see House Rep. No. 262, 43 Cong., 1 sess., pp. 2-3. This document gives schedules of proclamations by Presidents Lincoln and Johnson concerning the condition of the insurgent States at various times from 1861 to 1866.
General Meigs seemed to know about the start of the war on April 10, 1861. Inquiry at the Executive Mansion and State Department turned up no copy of the orders. The President and State ran this operation and cut the Navy and War Departments out of the loop.
OFFICIAL RECORDS, Volume 1, Series 1
Honorable WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State:
DEAR SIR: By great exertions, within less than six days from the time the subject was broached in the office of the President, a war steamer sails from this port; and the Atlantic, built under contract to be at the service of the United States in case of war, will follow this afternoon with 500 troops, of which one company is sappers and miners, one a mounted battery. The Illinois will follow on Monday with the stores which the Atlantic could not hold.
While the mere throwing of a few men into Fort Pickens may seem a small operation, the opening of a campaign is a great one.
Unless this moment is supported by ample supplies and followed up by the Navy it will be a failure. This is the beginning of the war which every statesman and soldier has foreseen since the passage of the South Carolina ordinance of secession. You will find the Army and the navy clogged at the head with men, excellent patriotic men, men who were soldiers and sailors forty years ago, but who now merely keep active men out of the places in which they could serve the country.
If you call out volunteers you have no general to command. The general born, not made, is yet to be found who is to govern the great army which is to save the country, if saved it can be. Colonel Keyes has shown intelligence, zeal, activity, and I look for a high future for him.
England took six months to get a soldier to the Crimea. We were from May to September in getting General Taylor before Monterey. Let us be supported; we got to serve our country, and our country should not neglect us or leave us to be strangled in tape, however red.
Respectfully,
M. C. MEIGS.
U. S. TROOP-SHIP ATLANTIC,
Lat. 32^13', Long. 74^49'15'', April 10, 1861.
Washington, D. C., February 27, 1865.
Bvt. Brigadier General E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-General, War Department:
MY DEAR GENERAL: The Navy Department has no copy of the instructions to D. D. Porter and other naval officers under which they co-operated with the expedition of April, 1861, to re-enforce Fort Pickens.
The President has none, and they have applied to me. My copies, I think, I placed in Hartsuff's hands. He was adjutant of the expedition.
Please forward the inclosed note to him, and if you have copies let me have for the Navy Department a copy of the President's order to Porter and to other naval officers. Also of the order to Colonel Brown, which required all naval officers to aid him.
General Scott knew of the expedition and its orders; and you were acting confidentially with him and may have had custody of those orders, which were kept secret even from the Secretaries of War and Navy, I believe.
Yours, truly,
M. C. MEIGS,
Quartermaster-General, Brevet Major-General.
QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington City, March 15, 1865.
Brigadier General E. D. TOWNSEND,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Washington, D. C.:
DEAR TOWNSEND: The Navy Department has lately inquired after the orders under which the Fort Pickens expedition was organized and carried out.
The instruction to Colonel Brown and to Captain D. D. Porter were
prepared by Colonel Keyes and by myself, or the greater part of them were so prepared, and the more important papers were signed by the President.
I left all my notes of these instructions with Hartsuff, that he might make up a complete record of the orders and instructions for the headquarters of the Department of Florida, of which Colonel Brown was placed in command. As he left Fort Pickens before they were engrossed, he left my papers in the office of the commander of the department.
The department having been broken up, it is probable that the records are still at Fort Pickens or Pensacola. I believe that the records of a department, when it is discontinued, should, by military rule, be sent to the Adjutant-General's Office at the War Department for safe keeping.
Would it not be well to send out orders for the transmission of the early records of headquarters of the Department of Florida to your office, so as to insure their preservation?
Inquiry at the Navy Department, and at the Executive Mansion and at the State Department, has failed to discover any copies of the orders.
It was an Executive act, unknown at the time to any but those engaged therein, including General Scott, the Secretary of State, and the President.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
M. C. MEIGS,
Quartermaster-General, Brevet Major-General, Chief Engineer of the Expedition to Relieve Fort Pickens in April, 1861.
Order of the President of the United States to the Secretary of the Navy, relieving
Lieutenant D. D. Porter, U. S. Navy, from special duty.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 11, 1861.
SIR: Lieutenant D. D. Porter was placed in command of the steamer Powhatan and Captain Samuel Mercer was detached therefrom by my special order, and neither of them is responsible for any apparent or real irregularity on their part or in connection with that vessel. Hereafter Captain Porter is relieved from that special service and placed nnder the direction of the Navy Department, from which he will receive instructions and to which he will report.
Very respectfully, ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.
Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Transcribed and Annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. Galesburg, Illinois.
From Montgomery C. Meigs to William H. Seward, April 1, 1861
(Copy.)
Private & Confidential
Dr. Sir
Bvt. Major Tower [1] of the Engineers writes on the 27th March, on board Sabine off Pensacola that he goes on shore when he chooses but does not reside in the fort because Capt. Adams lands naval forces and Lieut. Slemmer thought it would violate the agreement between U. S. and Col. Chase.
[Note 1 ID: Zealous B. Tower graduated first in his class at West Point and served on General Scott's staff during the Mexican War. Tower was the engineer in charge of the defenses at Fort Pickens in 1861 and was promoted to brigadier general in 1862. Severely wounded at Second Manassas, Tower spent the remainder of the war at West Point and on garrison duty.]
The Brooklyn before she went to Key West left Capt. Vogdes and his company on the Sabine.
They daily expect messengers to authorize them to put more troops into the Fort. So the reinforcement may have been already made.
Major Tower calls for stores for a defence against a siege but hopes such an exhibition of force by the United States as will prevent a siege.
I think that Porter should be ordered to take the Powhatan and sail from New York into Pensacola Harbor at once. The Wyandotte or any other steamer at Pensacola should also go in.
She should start tonight if ready. Other things can follow--
I am
Very truly & Respectfully
Your obt. servt
Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Transcribed and Annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. Galesburg, Illinois.
From Gustavus V. Fox to John G. Nicolay, February 22, 1865
Washington, Feby 22 1865
Dear Sir:
Early in April 1861, the U S S Powhatan, under the command of Lieut. D. D. Porter, was despatched from New York to Pensacola on confidential service. [1] The orders were from the President direct and do not appear in the records of this Department. If there is a record of them in your office, will you be kind enough to furnish a copy for the files of this department?
[Note 1 David D. Porter, aboard the USS Powhatan, was dispatched by special Presidential order to the relief of Ft. Pickens in Pensacola harbor. See Official Records, Series I, Volume 1, 406-07; and Nicolay to Fox, February 24, 1865.] G. V. Fox.
Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress. Transcribed and Annotated by the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. Galesburg, Illinois.
From John G. Nicolay to Gustavus V. Fox, February 24, 1865
Copy
Washington, Feb'y 24, 1865.
Dear Sir:
In reply to your letter of the 22d inst., the President requests me to say that he thinks no record was kept here of the orders given to Lieut. D. D. Porter, in regard to his confidential mission to Pensacola in the U. S. S. Powhatan, in 1861. [1] The President however remembers that Lieut. Porter was selected at the suggestion of Brevet. Maj. Genl. (then Captain) Montgomery C. Meigs, who, he thinks may be able to inform you where the records or memoranda you desire were kept.
[Note 1 David D. Porter, aboard the USS Powhatan, was dispatched by special Presidential order to the relief of Ft. Pickens in Pensacola harbor. See Official Records, Series I, Volume 1, 406-07; and Fox to Nicolay, February 22, 1865.]
Your obt servt
(signed) Jno. G. Nicolay
Priv. Sec.
STONEWALL #1
O.R. Series 1, Vol. 1, Part 1, Page 440-1
Message of the President of the United States, in answer to a resolution of the Senate requesting information concerning the quasi armistice alluded to in his message of the 4th instant.
JULY 31, 1861.- Read, ordered to lie on the table and be printed.
To the Senate of the United States:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant, requesting information concerning the quasi armistice alluded to in my message of the 4th instant, I transmit a report from the Secretary of War.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
JULY 30, 1861.
NAVY DEPARTMENT,
July 29, 1861.
The Secretary of the Navy, to whom was referred the resolution of the Senate of the 19th instant, requesting the President of the United States to "communicate to the Senate (if not incompatible with the public interest) the character of the quasi armistice to which he refers in his message of the 4th instant, be reason of which the commander of the frigate Sabine refused to transfer the United States troops into Fort Pickens in obedience to his orders; by whom and when such armistice was entered into; and if any, and what, action has been taken by the Government in view of the disobedience of the order of the President aforesaid," has the honor to report that it is believed the communication of the information called for would not, at this time, comport with the public interest.
Respectfully submitted.
GIDEON WELLES.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
STONEWALL #2
EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 30, 1861.
To the SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:
In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 23rd instant requesting information concerning the imprisonment of Lieutenant John J. Worden [John L. Worden], of the U. S. Navy, I transmit a report from the Secretary of the Navy.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
[Inclosure.]
NAVY DEPARTMENT, July 29, 1861.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
The Secretary of the Navy, to whom was referred the resolution of the Senate of the 23rd instant requesting the President of the United States to inform the Senate "under what circumstances Lieutenant John J. Worden [John L. Worden], of the U. S. Navy, has been imprisoned at Montgomery, Ala., whether he is still in prison, and whether any and if any what measures have been taken by the Government of the United States for his release," has the honor to report that it is believed the communication of the information called for would not at this time comport with the public interest.
Respectfully submitted.
GIDEON WELLES.
