Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles later writes, "There would seem to have been a deliberate purpose to render the Sumter expedition -- the first of the war -- abortive; to prevent the garrison from receiving supplies; to compel Major Anderson to surrender and evacuate the fort; for every step taken, every measure adopted, was met and thwarted by counteracting measures, most of them secret, emanating from or sanctioned by the President, who was unsuspectingly made to defeat his own orders and purposes."
To some, it's obvious who started the war.