Lin­coln found him­self in a dif­fi­cult posi­tion on March 9, 1861, as the sit­u­a­tion at Fort Sumter grew increas­ing­ly tense. Gen­er­al Win­field Scott, who had ini­tial­ly sug­gest­ed that the fort be sur­ren­dered, left Lin­coln unset­tled. With grow­ing con­cerns about the fort’s dwin­dling sup­plies and the fea­si­bil­i­ty of main­tain­ing its defense, Lin­coln sought more spe­cif­ic answers regard­ing Major Anderson’s abil­i­ty to hold the posi­tion. In his let­ter to Scott, Lin­coln asked three cru­cial ques­tions: How long could Ander­son sus­tain his posi­tion with­out rein­force­ments? Could the fort be resup­plied in time? And, ulti­mate­ly, how fea­si­ble was it to main­tain the fort’s defense? Scott’s response indi­cat­ed that Ander­son could hold out for around twen­ty-six days with pro­vi­sions, but with­out rein­force­ments, the fort’s posi­tion would become increas­ing­ly pre­car­i­ous. Rein­forc­ing Sumter would require a sub­stan­tial mil­i­tary effort, includ­ing a fleet of war­ships and around 25,000 troops—resources that would take months to amass, leav­ing lit­tle time to act deci­sive­ly.

While the sit­u­a­tion at Fort Sumter con­tin­ued to dete­ri­o­rate, Lin­coln remained embroiled in the com­plex­i­ties of office pol­i­tics. The White House was inun­dat­ed with appli­ca­tions for gov­ern­ment posi­tions, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing Lincoln’s abil­i­ty to make time­ly deci­sions regard­ing the fort’s fate. Amid this chaos, Post­mas­ter Gen­er­al Mont­gomery Blair urged Lin­coln to meet with Gus­tavus Vasa Fox, a for­mer U.S. Navy lieu­tenant who had pro­posed a dar­ing res­cue mis­sion to relieve Ander­son. Despite Fox’s lim­it­ed mil­i­tary expe­ri­ence, his ambi­tious plan, com­bined with his close con­nec­tions to Blair, con­vinced Lin­coln to con­sid­er the pro­pos­al seri­ous­ly. Fox’s idea was bold: to orga­nize a mil­i­tary mis­sion to resup­ply Fort Sumter, which Lin­coln saw as a poten­tial solu­tion to the grow­ing cri­sis. How­ev­er, the plan lacked clear mil­i­tary back­ing, and Lin­coln was uncer­tain about its fea­si­bil­i­ty, which only added to his grow­ing con­cerns about the frag­ile state of the Union.

As the cab­i­net delib­er­at­ed on Fox’s pro­pos­al, opin­ions were deeply divid­ed. Sec­re­tary of State Seward and oth­ers feared that any attempt to relieve Sumter could esca­late ten­sions and poten­tial­ly ignite civ­il war. They also voiced con­cerns that such an action could alien­ate the bor­der states, who might per­ceive it as a provo­ca­tion. On the oth­er hand, Mont­gomery Blair strong­ly advo­cat­ed for imme­di­ate action, argu­ing that the seces­sion­ists already viewed the North as weak. He believed that rein­forc­ing Sumter was vital to main­tain­ing the Union’s hon­or and cred­i­bil­i­ty. Despite these dif­fer­ing view­points, the cabinet’s over­all stance was one of cau­tion, with many oppos­ing the rein­force­ment of Fort Sumter. They argued that the risks of pro­vok­ing a broad­er con­flict were too high and that the best course of action was to avoid fur­ther esca­la­tion.

Amid this inter­nal dis­cord, Lin­coln remained focused on one goal: pre­serv­ing the Union. Although the cab­i­net was hes­i­tant to take deci­sive action, Lin­coln was con­vinced that sur­ren­der­ing Fort Sumter would be a dis­as­trous out­come. He felt that any con­ces­sion would be seen as a sign of weak­ness, embold­en­ing the seces­sion­ists and weak­en­ing the Union’s resolve. How­ev­er, Lin­coln was intrigued by Fox’s plan and deter­mined to gath­er more pre­cise infor­ma­tion about the sit­u­a­tion at Fort Sumter. Despite the dif­fer­ing opin­ions with­in his cab­i­net, Lin­coln instruct­ed War Sec­re­tary Simon Cameron to gath­er the nec­es­sary intel­li­gence to assess whether Fox’s plan was viable. Ulti­mate­ly, Lincoln’s deci­sion to send Fox on this crit­i­cal mis­sion demon­strat­ed his com­mit­ment to sav­ing Fort Sumter and the Union. Even though Fox was per­haps the least objec­tive choice, Lin­coln trust­ed him to car­ry out the task with urgency, which would ulti­mate­ly shape the tra­jec­to­ry of the nation’s future.

In the midst of polit­i­cal tur­moil, Lincoln’s lead­er­ship remained stead­fast, dri­ven by the desire to hold the Union togeth­er. The con­flict­ing opin­ions with­in his cab­i­net reflect­ed the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion, as each mem­ber had a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive on how best to nav­i­gate the cri­sis. Yet, Lincoln’s deter­mi­na­tion to act swift­ly and deci­sive­ly, despite the chal­lenges he faced, would be test­ed in the days to come. The selec­tion of Gus­tavus Vasa Fox to car­ry out the mis­sion to resup­ply Fort Sumter marked a piv­otal moment in the ear­ly days of the Civ­il War, set­ting the stage for the events that would soon unfold.