Thursday, April 4, 1861.Washington,
DC. | Comdr. John A. Dahlgren (USN) on duty at Navy Yard,
calls on Lincoln regarding howitzers to be sent to New York. Extracts
from Dahlgren Diary, John G. Nicolay Papers, Library of Congress, Washington,
DC. At 11 A.M. President holds secret meeting with John B.
Baldwin, Virginia Unionist, regarding secession. Considers idea of yielding
Fort Sumter, S.C., in exchange for loyal pledge from Virginia, but rejects it.
U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Report of the
Joint Committee on Reconstruction, 39th Cong., 1st sess. (Washington,
DC: Government Printing Office, 1866), pt. 2, 102-3. Informs G.
V. Fox that decision has been made to let expedition go to Fort Sumter.
John S. Tilley, Lincoln Takes Command (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1941), 205. Writes
instructions for Sec. Cameron to send to Maj. Anderson at Fort Sumter: "Hoping
still that you will be able to sustain yourself till the 11th. or 12th. inst.
the expedition will go forward." Abraham
Lincoln to Robert Anderson, 4 April 1861, CW, 4:321-22. |