Con­flict brewed in ear­ly April as Major Ander­son, typ­i­cal­ly known for his com­posed demeanor, became increas­ing­ly frus­trat­ed with the inac­tion from Wash­ing­ton regard­ing Fort Sumter. The cat­a­lyst for his grow­ing dis­con­tent was the rev­e­la­tion of a telegram sent by Con­fed­er­ate Com­mis­sion­er Craw­ford to Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard. The telegram warned that Pres­i­dent Lin­coln might not order the evac­u­a­tion of Fort Sumter, instead leav­ing the deci­sion to Ander­son, effec­tive­ly putting him in the posi­tion of being “starved out.” Anderson’s frus­tra­tion inten­si­fied upon receiv­ing this infor­ma­tion, prompt­ing him to write a let­ter to Adju­tant Gen­er­al Thomas, ques­tion­ing whether the gov­ern­ment would tru­ly aban­don him with­out pro­vid­ing any clear direc­tion on how to pro­ceed. The uncer­tain­ty sur­round­ing his sit­u­a­tion added to the mount­ing pres­sure as the pos­si­bil­i­ty of war loomed clos­er.

The weight of this respon­si­bil­i­ty weighed heav­i­ly on Ander­son, as he expressed con­cerns over the pub­lic per­cep­tion of his actions. He was deeply trou­bled by the idea that a deci­sion as crit­i­cal as leav­ing Fort Sumter would rest sole­ly on his shoul­ders. Ander­son found it dif­fi­cult to believe that after over thir­ty years of ser­vice, his fate—and the fate of his men—would hinge on such an ambigu­ous deci­sion. He made it clear in his let­ter to Gen­er­al Thomas that he would not allow the nar­ra­tive to cast him as aban­don­ing his post trea­so­nous­ly, with­out receiv­ing prop­er orders or guid­ance. Ander­son stressed the impor­tance of obtain­ing imme­di­ate answers regard­ing the future of the pub­lic prop­er­ty under his com­mand, along with instruc­tions on how to pro­ceed with his forces in the face of ris­ing ten­sions and impend­ing war.

As Ander­son await­ed a response from Wash­ing­ton, he grew more anx­ious about the lack of clar­i­ty sur­round­ing his orders. While a let­ter was on its way to pro­vide some answers, it was clear that it would not be the clear direc­tive he had hoped for. In the mean­time, Anderson’s warn­ings about the severe food short­ages faced by his troops had reached Pres­i­dent Lin­coln, caus­ing grow­ing con­cern. Ini­tial­ly, Lin­coln had believed that the gar­ri­son could with­stand short­ages until April 15, but the sit­u­a­tion had esca­lat­ed, and it became evi­dent that the cir­cum­stances were much more dire than antic­i­pat­ed. Lincoln’s con­cern inten­si­fied as he began to grasp the seri­ous­ness of the sit­u­a­tion, rec­og­niz­ing the need for swift and deci­sive action to address the cri­sis at Fort Sumter.

Lin­coln, tak­ing con­trol of the sit­u­a­tion, draft­ed a direc­tive to Ander­son, which was sent through War Sec­re­tary Cameron. How­ev­er, Lincoln’s involve­ment was not explic­it­ly men­tioned in the mes­sage. The let­ter con­veyed a sense of urgency and con­cern, not­ing that Anderson’s ear­li­er cor­re­spon­dence had raised alarms about the sit­u­a­tion at Fort Sumter. The plan out­lined in the mes­sage includ­ed a mar­itime expe­di­tion to resup­ply the fort, with Cap­tain Fox des­ig­nat­ed as the leader of the mis­sion. Lincoln’s mes­sage empha­sized the need to hold out until the expedition’s arrival, but he also acknowl­edged that Ander­son, as a sea­soned sol­dier, would make the best deci­sions in light of the evolv­ing sit­u­a­tion. Ander­son was grant­ed the author­i­ty to sur­ren­der his com­mand if he deemed it nec­es­sary for the safe­ty of his men, a reflec­tion of the sig­nif­i­cant respon­si­bil­i­ty that now rest­ed on his shoul­ders.

Lincoln’s direc­tive marked a turn­ing point, as it not only addressed the imme­di­ate logis­ti­cal con­cerns but also rein­forced the weight of Anderson’s role in the deci­sion-mak­ing process. While the arrival of the expe­di­tion was crit­i­cal, the Pres­i­dent trust­ed Anderson’s judg­ment in man­ag­ing the fort’s defense and the safe­ty of his troops. This mes­sage, sent through chan­nels designed to min­i­mize risk, was a cru­cial step in the Union’s strat­e­gy, pro­vid­ing Ander­son with the resources he need­ed while empow­er­ing him to make the dif­fi­cult choic­es that lay ahead. The clar­i­ty pro­vid­ed by Lincoln’s direc­tive was a long-await­ed response to the uncer­tain­ty that had plagued Ander­son for days, but it also under­scored the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion at Fort Sumter, where every deci­sion could have last­ing con­se­quences. The respon­si­bil­i­ty now placed on Ander­son was enor­mous, as the fate of Fort Sumter and the Union’s response to the South’s seces­sion rest­ed heav­i­ly on his shoul­ders.