Never had control!?! He ordered the firing of the first shot! No wonder your view of the civil war is so screwed up! Lincoln or Buchanan had ample provocation to fire the first shot but Buchanan was too spineless and Lincoln was hoping the the rebellion would be stopped by cooler heads.
As Lincoln said;
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Heck, Davis was warned by his his Secretary of State that firing on Fort Sumter was a bad idea.
“Mr. President, at this time it is suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend at the North. The firing upon that fort will inaugurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen.” [Robert Toombs to Jefferson Davis, quoted in W. A. Swanberg, _First Blood: The Story of Fort Sumter,_ p. 286
Lincoln ordered the firing of the first shot. He ordered it on April 3 when he instructed warships to go to Charleston and blow the place to h3ll if necessary to impose his will on Charleston.
Lincoln told them "Do as I say or I will shoot."
Heck, Davis was warned by his his Secretary of State that firing on Fort Sumter was a bad idea.
Davis was warned by one person. Lincoln was warned by his entire cabinet that his actions would cause a war.
Lincoln knew he was starting a war. He did so because it was in his best interest to start a war with the South.