Question of the Week: When would you interview Lincoln?
If you could conduct a 1-hour interview of Abraham Lincoln, when would you want to go back to do the interview? Early 1861? April 1865 just before his assasination, 1862 right before he announced the Emancipation Proclamation? Some other time?
Immediately after he made the decision to reinforce Fort Sumter. I’d love to know if he had the slightest idea by that point that there was no turning back.
Abraham Lincoln tried to resupply Fort Sumter with provisions, but not troops, a move the Confederacy viewed as an act of aggression, leading to the bombardment that started the Civil War. He notified South Carolina’s governor of the plan to send unarmed supply ships, hoping to feed the garrison without forcing a fight, but {Jefferson Davis and the Confederates demanded surrender and fired on the fort when the relief fleet arrived}, making the South the aggressor in the conflict’s opening battle.
January 1, 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, changing the Vivil War from a fight to preserve the Union to a fight to free slaves.