[Retain Mike]

The Confederacy was not formed until February 1861 and Lincoln was not president until March, so it was quite impossible for “authorized agents’ to discuss secession in January.

I remember reading the many speeches in Congress about the issue and of course there would have been endless informal meetings to find some resolution to the impasse.

Davis talking informally as one Kentuckian to another was the only hope of avoiding war.

When Anderson initially left the other forts around Charleston harbor, he told folks in Washington he did not need to be resupplied. Afterwards he revised the statement to ask for help. The ships that came were not a warship convoy, but those needed to resupply him. Davis could have decided there was no reason not to allow him to be resupplied.

The forts were federal property and would not automatically revert to a state, but their fate would have been decided as part of secession negotiations. Mary Chestnuts Diary makes clear Anderson was given an ultimatum to surrender and bombardment began after the deadline passed, and not because Union warships were or were not present. I’ll stick with my understanding of history.

[DiogenesLamp]

The Confederacy was not formed until February 1861 and Lincoln was not president until March, so it was quite impossible for “authorized agents’ to discuss secession in January.

Because the possibility of discussing it with President Buchanan was impossible?

The ships that came were not a warship convoy, but those needed to resupply him.

That is incorrect. The ships that were publicly announced to be sent were the "Powhatan", the "Pocahontas", the "Pawnee", the "Harriet Lane", and the Yankee, all of which were warships.

Additionally, the "Baltic" was sent with hundreds of troops and munitions.

Three tug boats were also sent, and there is some question as to whether or not one of them was armed at the time, but here is a picture of the "Thomas Freeborn" tugboat.

Here is a picture of the USS "Pawnee". I couldn't find any pictures of the Powhatan or the Pocahontas, but they were at least as powerful as the Pawnee.

These were warships, and their orders were to use their entire force if they were resisted in their efforts to place supplies into Sumter.

Lincoln launched this attack, and then told the public it was just "supplies" and he would arrest anyone who said otherwise.

The Confederates knew he was sending a flotilla of warships to coerce them, and it was the arrival of the "Harriet Lane" (which immediately fired a shot at the "Nashville) that triggered the bombardment of Sumter.

General Beauregard correctly reasoned that if the fort was still in enemy hands when the ships arrived, he would face cannon fire from both the ships *and* the Fortress.

He offered a truce with Major Anderson, but Anderson refused.

Beauregard had to neutralize the fort before the rest of the ships arrived. The public orders said that Captain Mercer would arrive in the Powhatan and take control of the operation.