[FLT-bird]

Hmmmmmmm...... FLT-bird: "USS Pawnee" Arrived near Charleston after Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter began, remained 10 miles off-shore. "USS Powhatan" Never came anywhere near Charleston Harbor or Fort Sumter. "USS Pocahontas" Was nowhere near Charleston Harbor during the Battle of Fort Sumter. "Revenue Cutter USS Harriet Lane" The smallest ship of the alleged "war fleet", USRC Harriet Lane arrived near Charleston Harbor the evening of April 11 and remained well offshore for the entire battle, attacked no Confederate forces. "steamer Baltic" An unarmed civilian transport ship with supplies for Fort Sumter, plus troops if necessary. SS Baltic arrived near Charleston Harbor after bombardment had already begun against Fort Sumter. SS Baltic threatened or attacked nobody. "three hired tug boats with added protection against small arms fire to be used to tow troop and supply barges directly to Fort Sumter " None of the three were anywhere near Charleston Harbor during the Battle of Fort Sumter. Only one arrived in time for the surrender.

Lincoln sent ships which repeated invaded South Carolina's sovereign territory. He then sent a heavily armed fleet which was to threaten Charleston. This forced the Confederates to open fire to evict the illegal squatters.

If your author does not acknowledge what Jefferson Davis himself confessed -- that Davis didn't need a provocation at Fort Sumter to start Civil War -- then it's all just another pack of Lost Cause lies.

If you don't acknowledge that Lincoln deliberately started the war according to his own letter to his naval commander and according to both of his personal secretaries, then it is just another PC Revisionist lie.

That's nonsense, since by his own confession, Davis was going to start war at Forts Sumter and Pickens, regardless of what Lincoln did or didn't do:

No its not. Lincoln sent federal forces which invaded the sovereign territory of the CSA. They did this before the Confederates opened fire to drive them away. But for the invasion of their territory, they wouldn't have opened fire.

[BroJoeK]

FLT-bird: "Lincoln sent ships which repeated invaded South Carolina's sovereign territory."

Name even one ship which you can prove "invaded South Carolina's sovereign territory"?

FLT-bird: "He then sent a heavily armed fleet which was to threaten Charleston.
This forced the Confederates to open fire to evict the illegal squatters."

And yet there was no "heavily armed fleet" threatening Charleston, there was only one small ship even there, a revenue cutter, the Harriet Lane and it threatened no Confederates in Charleston or anywhere else that day.

FLT-bird: "If you don't acknowledge that Lincoln deliberately started the war according to his own letter to his naval commander and according to both of his personal secretaries, then it is just another PC Revisionist lie."

And so, we see, yet again, that under no circumstances can a dedicated propagandist like FLT-bird ever be forced to confess the truth, which even his own master, Jefferson Davis, readily admitted the week before events unfolded at Fort Sumter.

Lincoln's words -- three weeks later, on May 1, 1861 -- are clearly intended to console Capt. Fox over the failure of his mission to resupply Fort Sumter and to put the best face possible on it.

The choice to start war at Fort Sumter was made by Jefferson Davis long before any ships left port in the North, as Davis himself confessed to Gen. Bragg on April 3, 1861.

FLT-bird: "But for the invasion of their territory, they wouldn't have opened fire."

By Jefferson Davis' own words of April 3, he intended to start war at both Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens as soon as he felt ready, regardless of what Lincoln did or didn't do.

Those are facts you chose to ignore because you loathe and despise the real truth.