Significantly, Lincoln did not take this final, "irrevocable step" until after he received word that Fort Pickens remained unsecured. With Pickens no longer an incontrovertable symbol of the government's resolve to uphold its sovereignty, the mission t o Sumter became crucial. Further, until April 6, Lincoln still could have countermanded the Sumter expedition, since its ships did not actually depart for Charleston until two days later, April 8. But the news from Pickens compelled Lincoln to take "the decisive step" of sending word to Charleston.
In Potter's words, the Sumter expedition "was withheld until the fort was almost starved out, and it was withheld because Lincoln still hoped that he could transfer the issue of Union to Fort Pickens before the Sumter question reached a crisis.
Even beyond the point of safety, Lincoln had delayed, hoping that a display of Federal authority elsewhere would enable him to evacuate Fort Sumter.
Potter's view of the importance of April 6 is supported by many authorities. James Ford Rhodes's authoritative history of the period agrees that while Lincoln had "virtually decided" on April 4 to send the Sumter expedition, "he reserved in his mind the privilege of countermanding it or changing its destination, should he hear that his former order touching Fort Pickens had been executed.
Lincoln himself seemed to justify the Sumter mission in these terms. In his official account of his actions during this period, offered in a Special Session Message to Congress on July 4, , Lincoln claimed that he had learned it would be impossible to reinforce Pickens before a crisis would be reached at Sumter. A mission to relieve Sumter having been readied for some days, "the strongest anticipated case for using it was now presented, and it was resolved to send it forward.
However, both Richard N. Current and Kenneth M. Stampp present a different picture. Current, for example, identifies the key decision making day as April 4, when Lincoln arranged the details of the Sumter expedition with Fox , and also mailed a message to Anderson notifying him of the mission and urging him to hold out until the fleet arrived.
On April 6, Lincoln merely followed through on his plan by informing the governor of South Carolina. He also sent by messenger another copy of his instructions to Anderson in case the previous mail failed.
As for the situation at Fort Pickens, Current asserts that Lincoln had long expected that the fort had not been provisioned; the notification he received on April 6 was, therefore, not unexpected.
The news had no discernible effect on Lincoln except that he dispatched a messenger to Pensacola with new, properly signed orders. Meanwhile, the relief expeditions to the two forts proceeded according to schedule.
Finally, Current maintains that Lincoln's own explanation, which connected the news from Pickens with the Sumter expedition, was either a failure of memory or an attempt to assure northerners that he had taken the fateful step of relieving Sumter only after exhausting all other alternatives.
In fact, Current notes, the idea of linking the fate of Pickens to the Sumter expedition was secretary Seward 's, not Lincoln's. There was no reason to consider Pickens as significantly less explosive than Sumter.
The principles involved were identical, and the military situation similar. Regardless of what happened at Sumter, a crisis would soon have arrived at Pickens. In short, there was no reason to hinge policy at Sumter on events at Pickens.
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