[wbarmy]

As I stated in another post, just because Lincoln did not want to recognize the secession, did not mean he wanted to start a war. Possibly in their minds there were other ways to heal the rift or make some kind of reconciliation.

And April 7, 1861 was when the SOUTH cut off the supply route to Ft Sumter. Less than a month after the “negotiations” started. Kind of difficult to honestly negotiate with someone when you are taking military action to starve out their troops.

And newspapers back then were even worse about slanting news to fit their own preconceptions. The dates tell the story. The South was trying to strong arm the North into giving up the fort because they thought they had the military to back it up. The “myth” of the unbeatable southern soldier.

[central_va]

Lincoln's second inaugural speech he states that peace agents form the south wanted peace without war, but he refused to negotiate. Read the text of that speech closely. That little nugget of history seems to have been swept under the table.

PS: It is in paragraph 2 of the speech. It amazes me HE put that in his speech, to me it's a "mea culpa".

[DiogenesLamp]

And April 7, 1861 was when the SOUTH cut off the supply route to Ft Sumter. Less than a month after the “negotiations” started. Kind of difficult to honestly negotiate with someone when you are taking military action to starve out their troops.

Could this have been about the time they realized that Lincoln had no intention of negotiating?

Ft. Sumter was a foolish move on their part. About that there is no question.

The “myth” of the unbeatable southern soldier.

It would appear that pound for pound, they were certainly capable of whipping more than their weight in opposition forces. The Union had to resort to enslaving the Irish right off the ships to keep fighting them. In an even fight, it would appear that they would have demolished the opposition, but the Union, having better than four to one odds in population, made for a very formidable opponent.