Team Cuda: “The only way war would have been avoided is if the US did not contest this attempted secession, and that wasn’t going to happen.”
Sorry, I missed this...
The US certainly DID NOT militarily contest Deep South declarations of secession, or its forming a new Confederacy.
Indeed, Democrat President Buchanan did nothing more than express his opinion that such secessions were unlawful.
And he attempted to resupply US troops in Fort Sumter.
The mitary contest only began because the Confederacy first provoked war, then started war (at Fort Sumter), then formally declared war on the United States (May 6, 1861), while sending military aid to pro-Confederates in the Union state of Missouri.
Remember, in his First Inaugural (March 4, 1861), Lincoln told Confederates they could not have a war unless they themselves started it.
And of course, Jefferson Davis was happy to oblige.
Did you read the messages and letters posted by PeaRidge? By the meaning contained in them, it certainly looks like this interpretation of events is just wrong.
If those messages and letters are correct, it would appear to be just a fluke of time that the Union didn't start firing first. They were certainly in a position to do so, and seemingly had every intention of doing so as well.
It would appear the Union deliberately sent a hostile force to engage the Confederates and only refrained because the bombardment of Ft. Sumter had already started, and would therefore better serve the propaganda interests of the Union.
I’m sorry BroJoeK, I stand behind my contention that war was inevitable, once the Southern states attempted to secede. The mere fact that Buchanan, while expressing his opinion that secession was unlawful, did not militarily contest the secession, merely goes a long way to indicating why he’s at the lower end (if not the bottom) of any best presidents list. There were other reasons why the US did not militarily contest secession in January, though. A big part of this reason is that the US Army of the time was very small, and mostly posted to little forts all over the West.
Once Lincoln took office, he was determined to maintain the Union by any means necessary and, barring the states returning to the fold voluntarily, this meant war. His biggest problem was convincing the states to supply troops for the cause. In order to get Northern (and European) popular opinion behind him, he needed the Confederacy to be seen as the aggressor. Fortunately for him, Jefferson Davis, Governor Pickens, and General Beauregard were happy to oblige. We attempted to resupply Fort Sumter, they shot first, and the rest was history.