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To: rustbucket
"If Anderson had stayed in Fort Moultrie, the country (countries, actually) might have been spared a war."

If the South were determined to secede peacefully, the country might have been spared a war. But the South wanted war, and expected to win it. What Jefferson Davis, like Abraham Lincoln did not want was to be seen as the aggressor. But since the Confederacy was by nature aggressive, it couldn't stop itself from war-like actions -- see my post on the many seizures of Federal forts & ships.

1,342 posted on 07/11/2009 2:49:19 PM PDT by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective...)
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To: BroJoeK
If the South were determined to secede peacefully, the country might have been spared a war. But the South wanted war, and expected to win it. What Jefferson Davis, like Abraham Lincoln did not want was to be seen as the aggressor. But since the Confederacy was by nature aggressive, it couldn't stop itself from war-like actions -- see my post on the many seizures of Federal forts & ships.

I disagree. The South wanted to secede peacefully. The taking of forts was to insure that they could if they faced an aggressive North that did not want them to secede.

I believe that Lincoln intentionally provoked war. By refusing to peacefully negotiate and saying he would take the South's revenue by interdicting ships coming into southern ports, he chose a path to war.

I have said on these threads that I think the South made a mistake in firing on Sumter. They had offered to supply Sumter with food early on. Anderson turned them down. They kept permitting him to buy fresh meet, etc., at the Charleston markets right up until word of Lincoln's battle fleet came in early April. Had Anderson accepted the food offer, there would be no need for a relief fleet.

I once posted a April 12, 1861, New York Times piece [Link to post] that wondered why on earth the South had not attacked Fort Sumter before then. The Times could not see that the South was holding out to the last moment trying to negotiate peace.

1,359 posted on 07/11/2009 9:57:15 PM PDT by rustbucket
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