The Mississippi militia fired warning shots at steamers that didn't pull over to be inspected. The steamers got the message and stopped for inspection. By your logic, the US has a blockade whenever it inspects my luggage when I come back from overseas.
You mean when Davis used Sumter as an excuse to start his war, don't you?
No.
Sumter was no more a threat to the confederacy than Guantanamo Bay is to Cuba.
One difference is that we aren't trying to provoke a war over Guantanamo like Lincoln did over Sumter after his similar ploy at Fort Pickens failed. Here was what Anderson thought when informed that Lincoln was sending the fleet:
I had the honor to receive by yesterday's mail the letter of the honorable Secretary of War, dated April 4, and confess that what he there states surprises me very greatly, following as it does and contradicting so positively the assurance Mr. Crawford telegraphed he was authorized to make. I trust that this matter will be at once put in a correct light, as a movement made now, when the South has been erroneously informed that none such will be attempted, would produce most disastrous results throughout our country.
It is, of course, now too late for me to give any advice in reference to the proposed scheme of Captain Fox. I fear that its result cannot fail to be disastrous to all concerned. ...
... I ought to have been informed that this expedition was to come. Colonel Lamon's remark convinced me that the idea, merely hinted at to me by Captain Fox, would not be carried out. We shall strive to do our duty, though I frankly say that my heart is not in the war which I see is to be thus commenced. That God will still avert it, and cause us to resort to pacific measures to maintain our rights, is my ardent prayer.
Here is what Montgomery Meigs wrote on board the ship heading to Pensacola with orders to reinforce Fort Pickens in violation of the negotiated truce at that fort:
This is the beginning of the war which every statesman and soldier has foreseen since the passage of the South Carolina ordinance of secession.
And here is Lincoln telling Fox that the expedition to Sumter had accomplished what he wanted even though it failed:
You and I both anticipated that the cause of the country would be advanced by making the attempt to provision Fort-Sumpter, [sic] even if it should fail; and it is no small consolation now to feel that our anticipation is justified by the result.
The result, of course, was war.
You might say that. I wouldn't.
No.
Denial.
One difference is that we aren't trying to provoke a war over Guantanamo like Lincoln did over Sumter after his similar ploy at Fort Pickens failed
Falling back on blaming Lincoln for the confederate mistakes again I see.
The result, of course, was war.
Which, of course, was fine with Davis and his crew.