Lincoln's friends: Withdraw to avoid War

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Gen. S.A. Hurlburt

• Now back in Washington, President Lincoln’s personal friend from Illinois, Stephen A. Hurlbut, reports to President Lincoln. Hurlburt has found in South Carolina and Charleston "no attachment to the Union . . . . positively nothing to appeal to." A separate Southern nationality is an "established fact." 

Equally conclusive is Hurlbut's appraisal of the Confederacy's plans to take Forts Sumter and Pickens. He has "no doubt" that Southern forces would repulse any type of relief effort, even a ship containing only provisions and no troops. Even if the government abandons Sumter, the crisis would continue as the South would "demand" Fort Pickens and the remaining federal forts in Florida. Thus, any attempt to maintain and enforce federal authority within the limits of the Confederacy would mean "War, in fact, War in which the seceding States will be united and the others disunited." 

Lincoln trying to figure out this Union thing

Hurlbut's travel partner, another trusted personal Illinois friend of the President, Colonel Ward H. Lamon, agrees with Hurlbut's assessment. South Carolina is swept with a madness that is hurrying the masses into open rebellion. According to Lamon's Carolina sources, war can be avoided only if the federal government acquiesces to peaceable secession and refuses to reinforce its Southern forts. Any attempt to reinforce Sumter would bring "the tocsin of war."/1861

• Meanwhile in Charleston, Confederate Brigadier General P. Gustave T. Beauregard advises President Jefferson Davis in Montgomery that the evacuation of Fort Sumter "ought to be decided upon in a few days" by the Lincoln Administration. He recommends that "this state of uncertainty ought not to last longer than is necessary to have all our preparations made to compel ... a surrender, should the United States Government not be willing to withdraw ... peaceably."/1861

• [2nd SESSION OF CONVENTION][SIEGE OF FORT SUMTER] General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard invites the second session of the Convention of the People of South Carolina to visit the Charleston fortifications/1861 

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• Charleston defenses nearly complete, Lincoln pushes Fox plan (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
• Fox reports to Lincoln re: Sumter (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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• Gen. Scott to Lincoln: "Surrender Sumter" (wbts-calendar.blogspot.com)
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• Disunion: The Choice is Charybdis (opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com)