Still wrong. Cadets at the Citadel fired at the Star of the West, and they did so without any instructions from the Confederate Military to do so. I believe they were also reprimanded for having done so.
Note that Southern forces indeed fired on a Union ships, and it was BEFORE Lincoln had been sworn into office.
If by "Southern Forces" you mean the college cadets who took it upon themselves to act out, sure.
Once he had become president, Lincoln informed the governor of South Carolina that he intended to send a relief flotilla to bring supplies to Sumter.
Now see here, i'm going to present you a little bit of cognitive dissonance on your part. You have just finished telling me about the Star of the West incident, and it is the story of a single ship (and not a very big one) bringing relief supplies to Fort Sumter. You then tell me about a "relief flotilla", (consisting of 8 ships) to do the exact same task. One of the ships in the "relief flotilla" was "The Baltic", which was a large passenger ship, ant it was carrying at least 200 riflemen. The other ships were mostly warships. Even the tugboats were armed with cannons. I believe there were several thousands of men involved in this "relief expedition."
So we have a "relief flotilla" composed of mostly armed combatants, instead of a single ship like the "Star of the West", which was deemed sufficient to carry the supplies previously. Add to this, the orders from Winfield Scott tell them to reinforce the fort, (Which is why they brought the 200 riflemen) and fight if resisted in reinforcing the fort.
Yet you can tell me with a straight face that this "relief flotilla" was not meant to provoke armed conflict, and it was perfectly reasonable for there to be eight armed ships to deliver some supplies to Anderson at Fort Sumter?
Beauregard ordered his command to open fire and they did so on April 12, BEFORE the relief ships had even arrived.
This is incorrect. It was the arrival of the Warships that triggered the attack. You can read about it if you go through the confederate message exchanges for the incident.
—The Charleston Mercury of to-day announces war as declared. “Our authorities,” it says, “yesterday evening received notice from Lincoln’s Government, through a special messenger from Washington, that an effort will be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions and that if this were permitted, no attempt would be made to reinforce it with men! This message comes simultaneously with a fleet, which we understand is now off our bar, waiting for daylight and tide to make the effort threatened.April 9, 1861
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United States vessels were reported off the bar. Major Anderson displayed signal lights during the night from the walls of Fort Sumter.—Times, April 10, 1861
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EXECUTIVE OFFICE, April 11, 1861.Brigadier-General BEAUREGARD:
DEAR SIR: In corroboration of the information which I am told you have already received, Captain Davenport, of the pilot-boat Palmetto, reports that he saw the Harriet Lane this afternoon, making towards this city with speed, until within about fifteen miles of the bar, when she “hove to.” That then he was about two miles from her, when he distinctly recognized her. He says he has no doubt about her identity, as he knows her well.
I am, dear sir, respectfully yours,
D. F. JAMISON.
And there are several others. The point here is that the arrival of the Warships is what triggered the conflict. If you read other of the Confederate messages, they were estimating a landing force of about 2600 men to attack them, along with armed gunboats.
Your description of the intended relief force and the involvement of David Porter is both innacurate and incomplete, as usual.
No, they are not. I know you very much wish they were inaccurate, but I have if anything, understated what actually happened.
But let us focus on a specific, point. Why would a lieutenant (two ranks below Captain in the US Navy ranking system of 1860) be given control of the command ship on the very threshold of the most significant mission being launched, refuse to obey orders from the Secretary of the Navy, disguise the ship so that it would unrecognizable to people who knew it well, run up a British flag, and then sail it to Pensacola, when the entire mission outside of Charleston was expecting it to arrive and take command of the expedition?
There were conflicting orders for the ship because of machinations within Lincoln’s cabinet.
Porter's orders came directly from Lincoln, were written in Lincoln's own hand, and were specific regarding relieving Captain Mercer of control, and specific that Porter was to obey no orders from anyone else, and the orders were sealed and hand carried by Porter.
When the Naval Yard in New York informed the Secretary of the Navy, he immediately contacted Lincoln, who replied to him that there must be some sort of mistake, and he informed Gideon Wells that he could have the ship back for his Sumter expedition. But Porter refused to accede to the Secretary of the Navy's orders that were delivered to him, and instead did what Lincoln's secret orders instructed.
The Machinations were not in Lincoln's cabinet, but in Lincoln himself. (Lincoln was known for pulling underhanded stunts.)
Besides, the relief force included two warships, the Pawnee and the Pochantas.
And the USS Thomas Freeborn, Uncle Ben, USS Yankee, USS Baltic, USRC Harriet Lane, and the USS Powhatan. I believe that constitutes 8 ships.
DiogenesLamp: "And the USS Thomas Freeborn, Uncle Ben, USS Yankee, USS Baltic, USRC Harriet Lane, and the USS Powhatan. I believe that constitutes 8 ships."
DiogenesLamp puts a lot of effort into drawing our attention away from Jefferson Davis' motives for starting war, "look at these bright shiny objects here", he says, Lincoln's battle fleet sailing to assail, subdue & oppress the Confederacy.
That's what really started the war, and it's all for money, money, money, Lincoln needed more money, money, money, claims DiogenesLamp!
Of course, that's all rubbish & nonsense, regardless of how often repeated.
Had Lincoln truly wished to start war at Fort Sumter, he would have ordered his ships to go in with guns ablasin', wouldn't he?
But he didn't.
Lincoln's orders were, in effect: no first use of force, resupply only, don't reinforce if not opposed.
Lincoln did not want war, certainly did not need war ("money, money, money" notwithstanding), but Jefferson Davis absolutely, positively did need war.
Davis needed war because without it Virginia would remain in the Union and along with Virginia the entire Upper South & Border States.
Only war would satisfy Virginia's Constitution signing statement condition of:
And Davis was right -- within a week of Fort Sumter, Virginia's secession convention reversed it's previous pro-Union vote and declared for secession.
Clearly Fort Sumter was for the Confederacy the biggest gain in territory with the least expenditure of military effort in history of the world!
So in April 1861 Jefferson Davis was pure genius.
Abraham Lincoln? Well... not so much.
“Still wrong.”
Really? The Citadel is not in South Carolina? You do know there was no CSA at that time, right. So no Confederate military. These were the only men trained in artillery available to South Carolina at the time, so yeah, they count. Hell, sesech across the South took it upon themselves to act out.
“Yet you can tell me with a straight face that this “relief flotilla” was not meant to provoke armed conflict, and it was perfectly reasonable for there to be eight armed ships to deliver some supplies to Anderson at Fort Sumter?”
You can tell me with a straight face that surrounding a federal fort with artillery and troops demanding the surrender of the installation was not meant to provoke armed conflict? You’re going to tell me that declaring secession wasn’t meant to provoke armed conflict?
“It was the arrival of the Warships that triggered the attack.”
Except that Jefferson Davis had already ordered that the fort be attacked BEFORE the flotilla arrived. He could have ordered the resupply to go forward, or attacked the flotilla as had been done with the earlier ship. Instead he chose war.
“The Machinations were not in Lincoln’s cabinet, but in Lincoln himself.”
Not so. The secretary of the Navy and secretary of State issued conflicting orders. One for Powhatten to sail to Sumter, the other to Fort Pickens. Since Lincoln was commander in chief, his secret orders took precedence. Seward never resolved matters with Navy chief Welles as promised and Porter trumped Mercer.
“It was finally agreed that my plan should be carried out. I wrote the necessary orders, which were copied by Captain Meigs and signed by the President, who merely said as he did so, “Seward, see that I don’t burn my fingers.”
David Porter