So you don’t count firing on The Star of the West as an act of war?
Thanks for the question.
I call every Confederate act of war before Fort Sumter (seizures of forts, ships, arsenals, mints, etc., threats against Union officials, firings on Union ships, etc.) provocations, provocations to which President Buchanan refused to respond.
But the Confederate military assault on Fort Sumter was orders of magnitude greater, an attack, I'll repeat, equivalent in its day to the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
It was a clear, unequivocal act of war against Union troops which resulted in two deaths, and surrender of the fort -- a military loss relatively far-greater than US losses at Pearl Harbor.
After Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare that since the attack a state of war has existed, and that is precisely my view also of Fort Sumter.