America’s Civil War: Union’s Mission to Relieve Fort Sumter

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Fox’s plan was not without risk. To reach Fort Sumter, the launches and tugs had to pass within 1,300 yards of the Confederate batteries on nearby Morris and Sullivan’s islands. Moreover, Fox believed that the failure of Star of the West’s expedition made his own task even more difficult. The Southerners, he felt, would have surely taken precautions to prevent a similar attempt to relieve Fort Sumter. Since the repulse of the steamer Star of the West at Charleston it may be assumed that all channels over the bar are obstructed, Fox wrote. Nonetheless, he remained optimistic that the boats and light-draft tugs could avoid such obstacles. As the bar is more than four miles in length, said Fox, the spaces between these channels are too extensive to be closed.

Fox’s plan met with enthusiastic approval from his civilian friends. He first explained his plan to George W. Blunt of New York. Convinced of its prospects for success, Fox and Blunt then enlisted the aid of Charles H. Marshall, who agreed to furnish and provision the necessary vessels without arousing suspicion.

The response of Federal authorities in Washington to Fox’s plan was less enthusiastic. In February, Fox was called to Washington to explain the plan to Scott, who reported upon it favorably. In the end, however, the plan was rejected because Buchanan’s administration decided to take no action to relieve Fort Sumter. The plan was better received, however, by advisers of President Lincoln, who was inaugurated on March 4, although they, too, initially rejected it. Scott now worried that the increased number of Southern batteries erected at Charleston since February made the plan impractical. But the initiative and daring of Fox’s scheme impressed the new president. On March 19, 1861, Fox was dispatched to Charleston to visit Fort Sumter. Our Uncle Abe Lincoln has taken a high esteem for me, Fox wrote to his wife, and wishes me to take dispatches to Major Anderson at Fort Sumter with regard to its final evacuation and to obtain a clear statement of his condition which his letters, probably guarded, do not fully exhibit.

The trip gave Fox the opportunity to observe firsthand the situation at Fort Sumter. Upon his return to Washington, he finally won over those who were skeptical of his plan. With the help of Commodore Silas H. Stringham, the Navy Department’s detailing officer, Fox finally convinced Lincoln of the rescue plan’s viability. On March 30, the president dispatched Fox to New York with instructions to prepare for the voyage to Charleston.

During the preceding months, Fox had endured seemingly endless delays. Now, with the authorization in hand to proceed with the mission, he was forced to mount his relief expedition in great haste. In all, Fox had only nine days to assemble and prepare his force to sail.

Some of the preparations were completed with relative ease. Fox immediately engaged the services of the large civilian steamer Baltic to carry the bulk of his expedition. Other elements of Fox’s plan did not come together so easily, however. The Navy had placed all its commissioned ships in the Atlantic waters at Fox’s disposal, ordering the naval warships Powhatan, Pocahontas and Pawnee and the revenue cutter Harriet Lane to be placed in readiness for sea service. Preparing the naval warships for the mission, however, proved no easy task. The 2,415-ton side-wheel steamer Powhatan, for instance, had already been decommissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and her crew transferred to the receiving ship North Carolina by the time orders arrived for the vessel to join Fox’s force. Crew members with less than a year remaining on their enlistments were expecting to be discharged, and many of the officers had already departed on leave. The demands of Fox’s mission, however, meant that all leaves, transfers and discharges were canceled, and all crew members were ordered to return to the ship.

Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts

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