Yes, and it did so in a harbor where it had no business conducting such patrols. Much like its nearby support garrison, the Harriet Lane was there for one reason alone - to obstruct and control access to Charleston.
You guys are really desperate for arguments if you need to cite the Lane as the first shot of the war.
Not really. That the Harriet Lane fired the first shot of the war is a matter of historical consensus. You simply don't like the fact that it confounds your attempts to blame everything on the south.
Now that was the bone of contention, wasn't it? You can say they had no business being there, and I say that they had every business and duty to be there and to enforce US law.
I have the strong feeling that if George Washington were still around, the gentry of Charleston wouldn't have faired any better than the dirt farmers of Western Pennsylvania did 70 years earlier when they tried rebellion. I also feel that another Virginian, James Madison, the father of the constitution, would have applauded crushing the Charleston treason.