The right answer is A - by sending unarmed supply ships to to the fort.
On April 4, 1861, Lincoln faced his first major crisis as president. Most of his cabinet members and senior military officers urged him to withdraw the troops from Fort Sumter to preserve peace. Lincoln, however, believed that giving up Fort Sumter would mean giving up the Union. So he ordered that ships be sent to Charleston to resupply the sixty-nine federal soldiers at Fort Sumter. On April 4, 1861, Lincoln faced his first major crisis as president. Most of his cabinet members and senior military officers urged him to withdraw the troops from Fort Sumter to preserve peace. Lincoln, however, believed that giving up Fort Sumter would mean giving up the Union. So he ordered that ships be sent to Charleston to resupply the sixty-nine federal soldiers at Fort Sumter. This order ignited the Confederate attack, which on April 12, started a 34-hour open fire against the Fort Sumter, until its ultimate surrender. The fall of Fort Sumter started the Civil War and inflamed a wave of swagger across the Confederate states.
