He waged the war. The South started it.
Nope. That's wrong. We have been misled. Lincoln sent armed combatants to South Carolina in violation of the Armistice. That was an act of War.
The Confederate forces were faced with gunships and troop landing on one side, and a fortress providing cannon fire from the other. It became a military necessity to prevent their forces from being confronted with a Two pronged attack, and so they had to take the Fort before the Naval force showed up to hit them from the other side.
The fact that Lincoln had sent an armed force into South Carolina was secret at the time, and the reason it was secret was to insure that the Northern public was never made aware that Lincoln started the war deliberately and in the full knowledge that he was starting the war.
This was the lead ship.
There were three others, and about 1,800 armed soldiers aboard these ships.
Yes, we know the names of the ships and what they were carrying and
some of what their orders were, except for the Secret orders given to Captain Porter, of which there are no records available. It was after this incident, that Captain Porter became Admiral Porter.
Welles sent Capt. Mercer, in command of the Powhatan, the following instructions, which the record has dated April 5 1861.
“The United States steamers Powhatan, Pawnee, Pocahontas, and Harriet Lane will compose a naval force under your command, to be sent to the vicinity of Charleston Harbor, for the purpose of. . . carrying out the objects of an expedition of which the War Department has charge (Scott is supplying the men and material and transports, Fox is to lead them.).Lincoln deliberately started that war, and cleverly covered up his hand in it, at least so far as the Northern Newspapers knew anything about what he had done.
