Actually your statement in question had two parts, the operative part being:
Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane was moving about the harbor entrance and firing on civilian shipping. According to the report by Osbon, this was before the firing on Sumter began."To support this claim, you cite two sources, the OR and the USCG site. I asked where, in the OR, it supports your claim that the "Harriet Lane" was firing on civilian shipping. What you come back with fails to address the question. The fact is that the OR makes no mention of the "Harriet Lane" firing on civilian shipping. All you've demonstrated from the OR is that the rebels knew the "Harriet Lane" was out there.
As for the other part, I'll see your USCG web page with another official USCG history page citation, which puts the shot across the Nashville's bow on April 12.
http://www.navyandmarine.org/ondeck/1800uscg.htm
http://tmlha.exis.net/rcs.htm
Go back and read the byline on those two pieces. IT'S THE SAME ARTICLE! And you're working on your MA?
"On April 11, 1861, the Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane fired the first shots of the maritime conflict in the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War". http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/United_States_Revenue_Cutter_Service
Hmm. Funny thing about that citation. It seems you didn't include the entire sentence. Here's the entire sentence: "On April 11, 1861, the Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane fired the first shots of the maritime conflict in the American Civil War of 1861-1865. The cutter fired a shot across the bow of the Confederate steamship Nashville as it tried to enter Charleston Harbor during the bombardment of Fort Sumter." DURING the bombardment ON April 11. Since I think even you will agree that the bombardment didn't begin until the pre-dawn hours on April 12, that this source is, to say the least, challenged. Of course, that didn't stop you from cutting off the troublesome part and putting it up anyway.
Then you offer another unsubtianted comment from a local publication that does not offer any official citation.
A "local publication"? I suppose that by your lights, the New England Journal of Medicine is a local doctor's magazine. The Southwest Historical Quarterly is the longest-running scholarly journal in Texas. It has been continuously published since 1897. It is associated with the Texas State Historical Society and the University of Texas and it's articles are peer-reviewed in accordance with the standards of historical scholarly journals. The author of the article was a faculty member of the Coast Guard Academy. One of the sources he cites in the article's bibliography is an account of the "Harriet Lane" by an officer on board at the time.