[RobbyS]

I think that Davis knew what he was doing. I guess that Lincoln would not dare try to relieve Sumter because he knew it would provoke Virginia and Maryland to secede from the Union. Lincoln was working hard on the Virginians. They did secede, of course, but Lincoln ruthlessly kept Maryland from following suite. Don't think that Davis expected Lincoln to be so hard. It is my impression that the Confederates were expecting that their residence in Richmond would be short and that their eventual capital would be Washington. Had the northern states not been so quick in their military response, that would have happened. How differently would the course of the war developed in that case.

[cowboyway]

I think that Davis knew what he was doing.

From the New York Herald shortly after Davis' death on December 6, 1889:

"In the essential element of statesmanship, Davis will be judged as the rival and parallel of Lincoln. When the two men came face to face, as leaders of two mighty forces, bitter was Northern sorrow that Providence had given the South so ripe and rare a leader and the North an uncouth advocate from the woods."

[cowboyway]

I think that Davis knew what he was doing.

From the Raleigh News and Observer shortly after the war:

"It is profitless to discuss how far any measure of the Confederate government was right or wrong, but as for Mr. Davis, he had the responsibility; he had full knowledge of all the circumstances; he had the general plan of the whole war from Texas to the Potomac to subserve and watch and to carry out. It is to our glory that there was no Fort Lafayette at the South. It is to the honor of the Confederate government that no Confederate secretary ever could touch a bell and send a citizen to prison."