All Walter Williams is demonstrating, though I doubt he realizes it, was that at first the Southern acts of secession were not opposed by the North. It wasn’t until the South chose to start what he calls the “War of 1861” that any action was taken against them at all. After that, well, the rest is history.
Yes, the South fired during the Gulf of Tonkin incident, er, I mean the Fort Sumter incident and that was justification enough for President Lyndon Johnson, I mean President Lincoln, to escalate.