DiogenesLamp: "And of that, I have become convinced.
Lincoln was a very shrewd operator..."
"Shrewd operator" or dolt, Lincoln "suckered" nobody.
He merely, as President Buchanan had in January, sent ships to resupply the Union troops in Union Fort Sumter, fully informing the South Carolina governor of his intentions.
And just as they had in January, Confederates again fired on Union resupply forces, but this time also fired on, and demanded surrender from Fort Sumter.
In both January & April the choice for violence was the Confederacy's, and in April that choice went beyond "provocation" to actual initiation of war with the United States.
Three weeks later (May 6, 1861) the Confederacy confirmed its intentions with a formal Declaration of War against the United States, simultaneously sending military aid to pro-Confederates fighting in Union Missouri, calling up another 400,000 troops and ordering military supplies from abroad.
In the mean time, no Confederate soldier had been killed directly in battle with any Union force, and no Union Army had invaded any Confederate state.
So the choice to start war was strictly the Confederacy's, not Lincoln's.
I remember it was an exercise in futility, and so I got to the point I just scrolled over the long winded stuff you would right.
I think I need to go back to that.