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Do you mean these?

Meig's letter below is SIX Days before the first gun was fired at Fort Sumter. The war was supposed to start at Pensacola, the Fort Sumter expedition was a feint. What Lincoln did not plan on was Fort Pickens being reinforced before his secret mission to force his way into Pensacola Bay. Instead, Beauregard fell for the bait and fired at Fort Sumter. This he did because he knew he could not stop an amphibious assault to reinforce it, which, unknown to him and the Union expedition commander G. V. Fox, was actually going to Pensacola.

Fort Sumter had no military value in Lincoln's plan of the war, Fort Pickens did, for without Fort Pickens the blockade of the Gulf of Mexico could not have been successful.

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Dr Lowery-

My expedition is ordered to be got ready, but I doubt if we shall get off. Delay, indecision, obstacles.

War will commence at Pensacola. There the Govt is making a stand and if they fire upon reinforcements, already ordered to land, Fort Pickens and the ships will open upon the whole party.

Shall leave here tomorrow afternoon. Love to all.

Truly

G.V. Fox

[Fox commanded the fleet ordered to Charleston]

Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Thompson, Wainwright, 1920

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U. S. TRANSPORT ATLANTIC,
[New York,] April 6, 1861- 2.30 p. m.
Hon. WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State:

DEAR SIR: By great exertions, within less than six days from the
time the subject was broached in the office of the President, a war steamer sails from this port; and the Atlantic, built under contract to be at the service of the United States in case of war, will follow this afternoon with 500 troops, of which one company is sappers and miners, one a mounted battery. The Illinois will follow on Monday with the stores which the Atlantic could not hold.

While the mere throwing of a few men into Fort Pickens may seem a small operation, the opening of a campaign is a great one.

Unless this movement is supported by ample supplies and followed up by the Navy it will be a failure. This is the beginning of the war which every statesman and soldier has foreseen since the passage of the South Carolina ordinance of secession. You will find the Army and the Navy clogged at the head with men, excellent patriotic men, men who were soldiers and sailors forty years ago, but who now merely keep active men out of the places in which they could serve the country.

If you call out volunteers you have no general to command. The general born, not made, is yet to be found who is to govern the great army which is to save the country, if saved it can be. Colonel Keyes has shown intelligence, zeal, activity, and I look for a high future for him.

England took six months to get a soldier to the Crimea. We were from May to September in getting General Taylor before Monterey. Let us be supported; we go to serve our country, and our country should not neglect us or leave us to be strangled in tape, however red.
Respectfully,

M. C. MEIGS.

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