Yeah, and The Lincoln quickly called for 75,000 more giving him an army of identical strength.
The rebels went first. I think the subject was coercion. You don't raise a 100,000 man army without a view to coercion. Just because the rebels got slam-dunked doesn't change the fact that they planned to do some coercion. It just didn't go the way they planned.
Walt
I'd act with haste too if I knew the country next door was preparing to invade me.
I think the subject was coercion.
The Lincoln evidently thought so as well.
""The words ``coercion'' and ``invasion'' are in great use about these days. Suppose we were simply to try if we can, and ascertain what, is the meaning of these words. Let us get, if we can, the exact definitions of these words---not from dictionaries, but from the men who constantly repeat them---what things they mean to express by the words. What, then, is ``coercion''? What is ``invasion''? Would the marching of an army into South California, for instance, without the consent of her people, and in hostility against them, be coercion or invasion? I very frankly say, I think it would be invasion, and it would be coercion too, if the people of that country were forced to submit." - Abraham Lincoln, February 11, 1861
You don't raise a 100,000 man army without a view to coercion.
Sure you do, if that army is raised for the purpose of resisting an attempt at coercion by another army.