[Sherman Logan]

So, you believe that the only tool of negotiation is the rifle.

No, but apparently the CSA was under this impression, which is why they chose to start the shooting by attacking a federal installation that had already stated it would be forced to surrender in a few days anyway.

Davis knew exactly what he was doing at Sumter. The CSA, at the time, consisted of 7 states, all in the Deep South and almost exclusively agricultural. There was no way this was a viable nation.

The CSA needed at least some, hopefully all, of the other 8 slave states to be able to withstand a confrontation with the Union. There were strong pro-Union movements in each of them, and in the days before polling nobody really knew what public opinion was.

Davis ordered the shooting to start as a way of forcing these states to pick a side. If all went with the CSA, secession would have succeeded, as even Lincoln later agreed.

If all stayed with the Union, the war would have been over quickly and relatively bloodlessly. In fact, it's likely some of the seceded states would have chickened out and "unseceded," as other southern states abandoned SC during its earlier confrontation with Jackson.

As it happened, four slave states (MO, KY, MD, DE) eventually stayed in the USA; three joined the CSA (AR, NC, TN) and one (VA) split in two.

This did not give the CSA enough resources to be able to win, but it gave it enough to fight bloodily for 4 years, with over 600k Americans being killed.

On news being received of the fighting at Sumter, VA immediately seceded, despite the convention having rejected secession a couple days before. Please note that VA received news of an attack by the CSA on the USA, not the other way around. So Davis' ploy succeeded.

[cowboyway]

There was no way this was a viable nation.

The British could have said that about the 13 colonies. That is just a BS statement.

Davis ordered the shooting to start as a way of forcing these states to pick a side.

Lincoln ordered the reinforcement of Ft. Sumter to instigate action from the South in order to justify his invasion.

The secession of South Carolina having dissolved her connection with the government of the United States, the question of the possession of the forts in the harbor and of the military post at the arsenal became at once a question of vital interest to the State. Able commissioners, Robert W. Barnwell, James H. Adams and James L. Orr, were elected and sent by the convention of the State to treat with the government at Washington for an amicable settlement of this important question, and other questions growing out of the new relation which South Carolina bore to the Union. Pending the action of the commissioners in Washington, an unfortunate move was made by Maj. Robert Anderson, of the United States army, who commanded the only body of troops stationed in the harbor, which ultimately compelled the return of the commissioners and led to the most serious complications. An understanding had been established between the authorities in Washington and the members of Congress from South Carolina, that the forts would not be attacked, or seized as an act of war, until proper negotiations for their cession to the State had been made and had failed; provided that they were not reinforced, and their military status should remain as it was at the time of this understanding, viz., on December 9, 1860.