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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.

That doesn't even make sense. If "The South" had wanted to secede peacefully they would have negotiated such instead of brashly acting like petulant teenagers who deal with a squabble by punching their father in the nose and stealing their car.

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.

What, by getting elected? The south had set its war plans into motion by the time Lincoln assumed office. This would be akin to negotiating the barn door after the horses have fled. The south wanted no part of "negotiations for peace" - they were only interested in terms of surrender.

I have said on these threads that I think the South made a mistake in firing on Sumter.

On this I would agree with you.

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.

You have a funny sense of cause and effect. "They" had no business interfering with the official business of the US government regarding the disposition of Ft. Sumter. They instigated the conflict and reaped the reward.

The south had set its war plans into motion by the time Lincoln assumed office. This would be akin to negotiating the barn door after the horses have fled. The south wanted no part of "negotiations for peace" - they were only interested in terms of surrender.

Citation, please. Where exactly are these war plans? And which side would have no part of negotiations?

From correspondence to Buchanan from the South Carolina Commissioners, Dec 28, 1860:

Sir: -- We have the honor to transmit to you a copy of the full powers from the Convention of the people of South Carolina, under which we are "authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, light-houses, and other real estate with their appurtenances, within the limits of South Carolina, and also for an apportionment for the public debt and for a division of all the property held by the Government of the United States, of which South Carolina was recently a member, and generally to negotiate as to all other measures proper to be made and adopted in the existing relation of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between this Commonwealth and the Government at Washington."

Senator Jefferson Davis on the floor of the Senate, January 10, 1861:

For the few days which I remain, I am willing to labor in order that catastrophe shall be as little as possible destructive to public peace and prosperity. If you desire at this last moment to avert civil war, so be it; it is better so. If you will but allow us to separate from you peaceably, since we cannot live peaceably together, to leave with the rights that we had before we were united, since we cannot enjoy them in the Union, then there are many relations which may still subsist between us, drawn from the associations of our struggles from the revolutionary era to the present day, which may be beneficial to you as well as to us.

From the resolution passed by the Confederate Congress proposing negotiations with the United States:

Resolved, etc., That said commissioners be further instructed to present to the Government of the United States assurances of the sincere wish on the part of this Government to preserve the most friendly relations between the two Governments and the States comprising the same, and to settle, by peaceful negotiations all matters connected with the public property and the indebtedness of the Government of the United States existing before the withdrawal of any of the States of this Confederacy; and to this end said commissioners are hereby fully empowered to negotiate with the Government of the United States in reference to said matters, and to adjust the same upon principles of justice, equality, and right.

From the Confederate Commissioners to Seward, March 12, 1861:

With a view to a speedy adjustment of all questions growing out of this political separation, upon such terms of amity and good will as the respective interests, geographical contiguity, and future welfare of the two nations may render necessary, the undersigned are instructed to make to the Government of the United States overtures for the opening of negotiations, assuring the Government of the United States that the President, Congress, and people of the Confederate States earnestly desire a peaceful solution of these great questions; that it is neither their interest nor their wish to make any demand which is not founded in strictest justice, nor do any act to injure their late confederates.