Replies

Everyone knows about the relief expedition.

You don't use WARSHIPS for a "relief" expedition. You use them for an attack.

Did any warships attack? NOPE.

If you are going to be an @$$ about it, the Hariet Lane fired at the Nashville in the entrance to Charleston Harbor.

Also, the Powhatan fired at Confederate ships, and fully intended to fire at Confederate shore batteries, but was prevented from doing so by Captain Meigs who put his ship in the path of the Powhatan.

Look, I know you don't want to actually understand anything, but for the sake of others, I'll tell you why the ships didn't engage as their orders directed. Their orders required them to wait for the arrival of Captain Mercer in command of the Powhatan, and Captain Mercer would coordinate their efforts.

Captain Mercer and the Powhatan never arrived, because Lincoln issued secret orders relieving Captain Mercer of Command, and putting Lieutenant David Dixon Porter in charge of the Powhatan, which he then sailed to Pensacola, and then attacked some Confederate ships there.

The U.S.S. Pawnee arrived only after the Fort had surrender.

It was the fact that it was known to be coming that convinced them they couldn't wait for it and the other warships to arrive. Facing cannon fire from both the Ships and the Fortress would have been insane, and so Beauregard correctly chose to neutralize the fort before the ships arrived to join them in combat.

He didn't expect the ships to leave without firing at them. He even held batteries in reserve just to deal with those warships.

Who started the war?

Abraham Lincoln when he sent a fleet of warships to force the Confederates to obey him. The majority of his Cabinet told him he would trigger a war if he sent those ships, but he chose to do it anyways.

Major Anderson had already written an evacuation order, and would have left peacefully in a couple of days, but the arrival of Lincoln's warships triggered combat. Beauregard was empowered to give Major Anderson as much time as he required to peaceably evacuate the fort, but that all changed when warships showed up to engage them.

Why did Gen. P.T. open fire? He was ordered to do so by the Confederate Government.

Which left the final decision up to him. His orders, which you are clearly ignoring, said he was authorized to make a peaceful deal for the evacuation of the fort. He was in the process of doing so, and Major Anderson was in the process of agreeing to it, when a bunch of warships were sighted at the entrance to Charleston harbor.

Even the blind moles know this history.

As I said, you know *ONLY* this history. You don't know the parts that completely change the nature of the affair. Lincoln blundered a bunch of warships into a situation that was almost resolved peaceably, and the effect was to start a war which killed 750,000 people, and completely destroyed the existing relationship between the Federal government and the states.

If I thought it was worth the trouble, I'd give you the quotes from Lincoln's cabinet members urging him not to send those warships because it would start a war.

But I don't think you are amenable to evidence that goes against what you wish to believe. You will just dismiss or ignore it.