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But they fired on the US flag instead, and suffered the consequences.

Actually, they fired on the US flag under the circumstance that it flew over a hostile army attempting to maintain its presence inside their borders. They fired on that flag at Fort Sumter the day after a union warship bearing it near the fort fired on a civilian confederate ship attempting entry into Charleston. The circumstances of the Sumter attack were further complicated by the fact that The Lincoln sent a fleet of warships to instigate a battle by attempting entry into the fort. Circumstances such as these place the historical event of Fort Sumter in a context that is lost in your simplistic account of events. In their light, no longer is Sumter a battle of the "bad guys" simply firing on the "good guys" as you would have it.

As for your assertion that the south "suffered the consequences" for firing on Sumter, such reasoning does not stand up to any test of moral judgment. It is absurd to suggest that an isolated firing on a single fort without any casualties provided necessary cause for the violent invasion and subjugation of the south over the following four years. Much to the contrary, The Lincoln consciously chose that path, the bloodiest path, among untold many options.

Much to the contrary, The Lincoln consciously chose that path, the bloodiest path, among untold many options.

"Firing on that fort will inagurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen...At this time it is suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend in the North...You will wantonly srike a hornet's nest which extends from mountains to ocean, and legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary; it put us in the wrong; it is fatal." -- Robert Toombs to Jefferson Davis, April 1861

So The Davis knew exactly what would happen if he fired and he did it anyway. And Toombs was right. It was unnecessary, it did put the south in the wrong, and it was fatal. Lincoln didn't kill the confederacy, it was a victim of suicide and The Davis pulled the trigger.

But they fired on the US flag instead, and suffered the consequences.

Actually, they fired on the US flag under the circumstance that it flew over a hostile army attempting to maintain its presence inside their borders.

John C. Calhoun was SecWar when Fort Sumter was contracted. It was nothing but home state pork. The money that flowed into South Carolina for the building and garrisoning the fort wasn't "hostile".

Your position is straight from "1984".

"Hostile Army".

What a joke.

Walt