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There were some troops aboard Lincoln's resupply ships.

Because everyone knows it takes 1,800 men with guns to unload food.

But Lincoln's orders to them, and his promise to South Carolina Governor Pickens, was that no attempt to land them would be made so long as the resupply mission was not opposed by Confederates.

I have recently been informed of an analysis that makes a pretty good argument that Lincoln never was going to attempt to land them. Their purpose was only to serve as compelling evidence that he was intent on violating the armistice and his own agreement.

They were basically sent to 10 miles east of Charleston's lighthouse to bob in the water for the sole purpose of allowing the confederates to see that they were there, and to convince them of the probability of an attack from the Sea forming one component of a pincer, with the other being provided by the Fortress, still at that point in Union hands.

The reason this was done in secret is because many people would have rightly seen this armed force as a deliberate provocation, so it was essential that the larger public not be aware of it.

The Southern government was most definitely aware of it because their spies had told them those ships carried armed men.

General G.T. Beauregard, Charleston Montgomery, 10th
If you have no doubt of the authorized character of the agent who communicated to you the intention of the Washington government to supply Sumter by force, you will at once demand its evacuation, and, if this is refused, proceed, in such manner as you may determine, to reduce it.
L.P. Walker, Secretary of War

DiogenesLamp: "Because everyone knows it takes 1,800 men with guns to unload food."

But, of course, there were not 1,800 men or anything close to that.
Instead, on the morning of April 12, 1861, when Confederates began their bombardment of Fort Sumter, Union ships near Charleston consisted of exactly two: the revenue cutter, USS Harriot Lane with a crew of 95, plus the civilian steamer SS Baltic with the provisions and around 200 troops.

But the truth is it didn't matter how many ships of troops Lincoln sent -- it could have been a rowboat with a pop-gun in the bow -- South Carolina Governor Pickens had been demanding for months that Fort Sumter be forced to surrender, and Confederate President Davis had ordered preparations for the bombardment in early March, even before Lincoln's inauguration.

So the only thing Lincoln's resupply mission did was provide Confederates with the excuse they needed to start a war, a war which was a necessary precondition for secession declarations by Virginia and after her, by North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas.

DiogenesLamp: "I have recently been informed of an analysis that makes a pretty good argument that Lincoln never was going to attempt to land them.
Their purpose was only to serve as compelling evidence that he was intent on violating the armistice and his own agreement. "

Sorry, I missed this one...

Of course, Lincoln had no intention to land those 200 troops onboard the SS Baltic, and that's exactly what he told South Carolina Governor Pickens.
So long as they were not opposed by Confederate force, those troops were ordered to stay aboard their ship.

Lincoln did imply that if they were opposed -- meaning if the Confederacy started war against them -- then the 200 troops would land at Fort Sumter.

We cannot know today how realistic Lincoln considered Gustavus Fox's plan to resupply Sumter.
My guess is Lincoln thought it would bring clarity, one way or the other.
And just as at Pearl Harbor in 1941, that certainly did happen.