Not quite. I'm getting the impression from your message that you are unaware of the fact that Lincoln sent a fleet of warships to Charleston with orders to attack them.
Were you aware that Lincoln sent a fleet of warships to attack them first?
Well *that* is why they attacked Sumter. The first warship "Harriet Lane" arrived and fired on the Nashville. That is when General Beauregard decided the rest of the fleet wouldn't be far behind, and so Sumter needed to be neutralized before the other ships got there.
Very rational military decision that.
Lincoln shouldn't have sent those warships. That is what started the war.
Lincoln sent ships to resupply Sumter, and notified South Carolina governor Francis W. Pickens of an impending expedition to provision the fort, an action that Lincoln said would not involve bringing any additional men or arms into the garrison. Jefferson Davis was a hothead who turned a winning 10th amendment Supreme Court legal case into a losing war. The South elected the wrong man and lost their independence. And now every state stills suffers from Davis’s blunder, since the illegality of secession is considered “settled” by the stupid war Jeff Davis started.
In my opinion, while FDR was secretly delighted that Pearl Harbor was attacked, Lincoln really preferred peace. As he said in his inaugural address: “there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere.” and ‘In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to “preserve, protect, and defend it.”’
I realize that convincing a Southern sympathizer of anything is even more hopeless than convincing a critic of the Warren Commission that Oswald was the lone assassin. But, for the record, the above is what I honestly believe.
Lincoln sent a fleet of warships to Charleston with orders to attack them.
Show me Lincoln’s orders for the warships to attack Charleston.
The first warship “Harriet Lane” arrived and fired on the Nashville.
Nashville was sailing without a national flag and without the customary navigation lighting. Any warship in anyone’s navy would have fire a shot across her bow to determine nationality and intent. Once she identified herself and lit her navigation lights, she was allowed to proceed into Charleston harbor.