[Delhi Rebels]

If Lincoln had withdrawn from Sumter and not launched headlong into a war there wouldn't have been 660,000 deaths

You could just as easily say that if Davis had not fired on Sumter then all those deaths could have been avoided. What threat was Sumter to the South, even had Lincoln been able to resupply the fort? Did it threaten the safety of the Confederacy? No, Charleston was one port and besides, the troops in the port had done nothing to interfere with shipping into and out of Charleston. Did the troops there take any hostile action aganst Confederate forces? No, they stood their post and didn't fire at anything. So why the attack? The only purpose for firing on Sumter was to provoke a conflict. One has to ask why Davis chose to do so if he didn't want a war with the North.

[DiogenesLamp]

You could just as easily say that if Davis had not fired on Sumter then all those deaths could have been avoided. What threat was Sumter to the South, even had Lincoln been able to resupply the fort? Did it threaten the safety of the Confederacy? No, Charleston was one port and besides, the troops in the port had done nothing to interfere with shipping into and out of Charleston. Did the troops there take any hostile action aganst Confederate forces? No, they stood their post and didn't fire at anything. So why the attack? The only purpose for firing on Sumter was to provoke a conflict. One has to ask why Davis chose to do so if he didn't want a war with the North.

It was just a matter of pride. It had nothing to do with any actual difficulties with the troops being there. But might I ask you how would the Founders have regarded a continuous occupation by the British of Fort Ticonderoga?

I will also point out that Federal Troops had shortly before abandoned Fort Moultrie in South Carolina. Were it so easy to abandon one Fort, why not another?