I just noticed this. Yes, you are absolutely right. Why didn't I see this sooner? It was absolutely horrible that they murdered those people at Ft. Sumter. Yes, Lincoln was absolutely justified in sending a 35,000 man invasion force to revenge the deaths of all those people that the Confederates killed at Ft. Sumter.
It was an act of barbarism, and it should have been swiftly punished by the Army Invading Richmond, but which had no orders to free any slaves.
Yes, those Confederates really shouldn't have murdered those Union Soldiers at Ft. Sumter. They just shouldn't have done that. No siree, that was just wrong.
If they had simply blown up some rocks, but not killed anybody, that would have been one thing, but murdering those people at Ft. Sumter was just unforgivable. Once you've killed people, you deserve a vengeful response.
Yup, the Union certainly taught them that murdering people at Ft. Sumter was wrong. Had they not murdered anybody they wouldn't have needed such a harsh lesson, but because they murdered those people at Ft. Sumter, they needed hundreds of thousands of men killed, lands burned, property seized, and lives wrecked.
If only they hadn't murdered those people at Ft. Sumter.
The intent was there, it doesn't matter that they were so bad at it. Did they try to murder people at Fort Sumter?