[orionblamblam]

> Check your geography, Ft. Sumter is in South Carolina. Hmmm, a Fort of Union Troops on Confederate soil and they were asked to leave.

The Union troops were on Federal property. They had every right to be there, just as the Marines at Gitmo have the right to be there (until the lease runs out, at any rate). If you are legally and properly occupying a spot of territory, the fact that your neighbors decide to up and leave doesn't mean they get to kick you off your land.

> The only bloodless battle of the war.

Hardly bloodless. It led to more deaths of Americans than Pearl Harbor did.

[lovecraft]

Yeah and if Japan ever decided to kick the US bases off of its land, there wouldn't be a damn thing we could do about it except go to war. The South had already seceded, they were their own soveriegn country and there was nothing legal about the troops occupying Sumter at the time. Do you see any other foreign countries with military bases on our land? No, because we won't allow it. You think SC was going to allow an enemy base of operations to conduct business on it's soil. Ridiculous.

And yes, the battle itself was bloodless, read up on it. Read about the opposing Generals and their relationship with one another before the war. As much as a genius Beauregard was with artillery, he shelled Ft. Sumter for 24 hours and didn't cause a single casualty. That was the last chance for peace then. The CSA would not surrender and the Federals wouldn't let them go. That's the reason for the bloodiest war in our history.