On April 5, Lin­coln faced the ram­i­fi­ca­tions of a crit­i­cal error: assign­ing the same war­ship, the Powhatan, to two sep­a­rate relief expe­di­tions. Late at night, he wel­comed Sec­re­tary of State Seward and Navy Sec­re­tary Gideon Welles, who had hur­ried­ly come after receiv­ing a dis­tress­ing telegram from New York. Upon read­ing the telegram, Lin­coln expressed dis­be­lief and took full respon­si­bil­i­ty for what he deemed care­less­ness and heed­less­ness on his part. He insist­ed to Seward that the Powhatan must accom­pa­ny the Sumter expe­di­tion, stress­ing that the oper­a­tion’s suc­cess was vital and could not be jeop­ar­dized.

Despite the urgency out­lined by Lin­coln, Seward main­tained that it was cru­cial to focus on an alter­na­tive plan—the Flori­da expedition—believing he could nego­ti­ate a peace­ful with­draw­al from Fort Sumter. How­ev­er, Lin­coln firm­ly dis­agreed, pri­or­i­tiz­ing the defense of Sumter and demand­ing imme­di­ate action to secure the ship in New York for the Sumter mis­sion.

Seward hes­i­tat­ed again, argu­ing it was too late to send a telegram, but Lin­coln over­ruled him. Although Seward ulti­mate­ly relent­ed, he may have delayed the mes­sag­ing effort, caus­ing the telegram to reach New York only the fol­low­ing after­noon. By that time, the Powhatan had already been assigned to the expe­di­tion to Fort Pick­ens and begun its jour­ney south­ward. The New York navy yard com­man­der dis­patched a fast steam­er to recall the ship, but Lieu­tenant David Dixon Porter, Powhatan’s new cap­tain, ignored the order, cit­ing his own direct instruc­tions from Lin­coln as supe­ri­or to a cab­i­net sec­re­tary’s com­mand.

Porter pro­ceed­ed to Fort Pick­ens with­out oppo­si­tion, suc­cess­ful­ly land­ing troops and sup­plies, but lament­ed nev­er hav­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage in bat­tle, describ­ing it as “the great dis­ap­point­ment of [his] life.” Mean­while, in New York, Cap­tain Gus­tavus Fox orga­nized the Fort Sumter expe­di­tion, mobi­liz­ing a fleet that includ­ed three tugs, a large trans­port, and war­ships. How­ev­er, unknow­ing­ly, he was obliv­i­ous to the fact that the essen­tial Powhatan was already en route to Flori­da, com­pli­cat­ing the mission’s logis­tics and effec­tive­ness.