Читать книгу American Civil War For Dummies - Keith D. Dickson - Страница 79

The situation wasn’t as simple as Lincoln made it appear in his inaugural address. Almost as soon as he arrived at the White House for his first day of work, Lincoln received an urgent message from Major Anderson at Fort Sumter. Anderson reported his food supplies would last about 40 more days. After that, he would have to give up the fort. The strength of Confederate batteries now covering the fort and the approaches to the harbor would make any attempt to reinforce or resupply impossible. This was an awkward moment; the new president had just committed the government to “hold, occupy, and possess” Sumter. And now it looked as though the fort would have to be given up anyway. Politically, such a scenario was unthinkable. Now, instead of waiting the Confederacy out, something would have to be done. The danger was that a misstep would lead to war, with the North standing before the world as the aggressor.

To make matters worse, the new Secretary of State William Seward, the man who thought he should have been elected president, began leaking information to the press and to pro-Southern acquaintances that Lincoln would not hold on to Sumter after supplies ran out. History shows that some things in Washington never change. The information, of course, reached its intended audience, but Confederate President Davis decided to wait and see. If anything, time was on his side at this point. Nevertheless, he knew that his military situation was even more precarious than Lincoln’s was. Davis needed as much time as possible to establish some sort of credible military force in the coming days.