[CodeToad]

“Fort Sumter could have been eventually negotiated, but the Rebs decided to start the war.”

It was an act of war for the USA to fortify Ft Sumter and to send ships to blockade the Charleston harbor. So, no, the South didn’t start the war. In fact, no one knows who fired the first shot.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

I don't know if you've ever read the supreme court case, “the prize cases,” but it has some interesting political rigmarole from both sides of the question regarding the issue of blockading the south.

[Sherman Logan]

In fact, no one knows who fired the first shot.

Uhh, not exactly.

Edmund Ruffin, noted Virginian agronomist and secessionist, claimed that he fired the first shot on Fort Sumter. His story has been widely believed, but Lieutenant Henry S. Farley, commanding a battery of two 10 inch siege mortars on James Island fired the first shot at 4:30 A.M. (Detzer 2001, pp. 269–71). No attempt was made to return the fire for more than two hours. ... At about 7:00 A.M., Captain Abner Doubleday, the fort's second in command, was given the honor of firing the union's first shot, in defense of the fort.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Sumter#CITEREFDetzer2001

Before the chorus of wiki-detractors chimes in, may I point out that they are free to post evidence that wiki is inaccurate in this case?

[Vaquero]

Although the states had seceded the fort was still a sovereign territory of the US. This could have been negotiated but to block the supply of food to US soldiers was a provocative act. And the south paid with a horrible loss.

Of course till Lee’s worse than mediocre showing at Gettysburg, the south was winning. So it all looked good for Dixie till that time. And it could have easily have gone the souths way had they played it right. In the North McClellan was a fifth columnist and generals like Burnside were buffoons. Lincoln, a non military trained person, was doing a crummy job of being a general, via telegraph, from behind the lines.

Lee of course had his subordinates like J.E.B. Stuart who weren’t where they needed to be. But then Lee did not listen to superior tacticians like Longstreet who cautioned against Pickett’s charge.

Shoulda Woulda Coulda. But all over human bondage which still plagues us today(the aftermath not the bondage....think Holder, new Black Panthers, and the knockout game).

Cest la vie.