so you are claiming Lincoln did not send ships which invaded South Carolina's territorial waters?
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.
and yet there was a heavily armed fleet threatening Charleston as has already been outlined in this thread.
And so, we see, yet again, that under no circumstances can a dedicated propagandist like BroJoeK ever be forced to confess the truth, which even his own master, Lincoln Davis, readily admitted to his Naval commander that he wanted a war and even if both of his personal secretaries confirmed it.
FIFY
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.
LOL! Pure BS. Console? He was jubilant as his letter clearly shows. He got the war he wanted.
The choice to start war at Fort Sumter was made by Lincoln when he sent a fleet of warships to invade South Carolina's territory.
FIFY
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.
Davis was compelled to open fire to drive away the invasion fleet Lincoln sent.
Those are facts you chose to ignore because you loathe and despise the real truth.
Those are the actual facts which you refuse to admit because they run directly contrary to the lies and propaganda you are so desperate to push.
I'm saying not a single Union warship, your words: "invaded South Carolina's sovereign territory."
I'm saying, first of all, South Carolina had no legally recognized "sovereign territory".
Second, even if we contemplate SC "territorial waters", there's no proof that any Union ship "invaded" those waters.
Third, there was no "fleet" on April 11, there was only one small ship, the Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane and it neither "invaded" South Carolina's "sovereign territory" nor threatened any Confederates.
All of this DiogenesLamp understands, which is why he argues it was not the existence of a mythical "war fleet" that even matters, but rather the issuance of orders telling the captains to used force if necessary to resupply Fort Sumter.
So, according to DiogenesLamp, it was Lincoln's paperwork which started the Civil War, not Confederates' actual firing on Fort Sumter, forcing its surrender.
FLT-bird: "and yet there was a heavily armed fleet threatening Charleston as has already been outlined in this thread."
Your list of Union "war fleet" ships includes none which were actually in Charleston Harbor or invading South Carolina's "sovereign territory".