[DiogenesLamp]

Confederate demands for Union surrender:

Often I just ignore your stuff, but this was close to the top, and is easily demonstrated to be factually wrong.

General Beauregard made it quite clear to Major Anderson that he was not asking for a surrender, but merely an evacuation.

Do I need to post Beauregard's messages to Anderson and Anderson's response? They both made it quite clear what their position was regarding this term "Surrender."

Beauregard did not ask it, and Anderson said he would die first. It was an exchange of several messages to make certain all were clear on this point. Must I post them for you?

[BroJoeK]

DiogenesLamp: "General Beauregard made it quite clear to Major Anderson that he was not asking for a surrender, but merely an evacuation."

Who was that, Shakespeare or Gertrude Stein who said: "Sh*t by any other name would stink just as bad" and Sh*t is sh*t is sh*t"??

I'm not sure, but I am sure that when Anderson pulled down the US flag at Fort Sumter both he and everybody else in the world considered it a "surrender".
Of course, Lincoln didn't blame Anderson or Fox for the mission's failure, but he did find something useful to do with the, ahem, sh*t -- turned it into fertilizer to help grow Northern war fever...