Despite such praise from high places, the secrecy surrounding the mission to relieve Fort Sumter kept Fox’s part in the plan from becoming widely known. Under no circumstances is any mention of it whatever to get into the papers, Fox wrote to his wife. The whole affair is in able hands and in due time will appear.

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Lack of public recognition did not keep Fox from having a distinguished wartime career, however. On May 9, he was appointed chief clerk of the Navy, and on August 1, Lincoln appointed him assistant secretary of the Navy, a position he held for the remainder of the war. As assistant secretary, Fox proved to be a superb planner and administrator.

Few Northerners would ever know of Fox’s daring–if unsuccessful–plan to reinforce and supply the Northern garrison at Fort Sumter. Like much of the action in the first chaotic days of the war, it would soon be overshadowed by the inexorable march of even more dramatic and bloody events. In some ways, Gustavus Fox was the hero that never was.

This article was written by John D. Pelzer and originally appeared in the September 1997 issue of America’s Civil War magazine.

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