Fox presents Sumter relief plan to Lincoln's Cabinet

Lincoln's Cabinet

• Lincoln convenes his cabinet twice today to consider Fox's plan to relieve Fort Sumter, from 10am to 1pm and again from 4-7pm. Gustavus Vasa Fox presents evidence both from military experiments and wartime experience of the difficulty for land batteries to hit objects, such as ships, moving rapidly at right angles to their line of fire, especially at night. While the Navy had earlier deemed the plan feasible, Army experts, however, contend that the expedition would be destroyed. Fox even offers to visit Charleston Harbor to investigate sending in supplies. No decision is made yet./1861