Then how did you learn it, if not from a history book?
Piecing it together from bits and pieces that took a long time finding on the internet.
Things like telegrams sent between various parties such as the Department of the Navy and the Ships it was sending. Telegraphs between General Beauregard and Secretary of War Walker.
Books about the economics of the period. Editorials from newspapers of the time. I even have an editorial from the "National Republican" (Official party newspaper in Washington D.C.) saying Lincoln was going to give up Ft. Sumter.
Take a look. March 11, 1861. Third article on the page.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014760/1861-03-11/ed-1/seq-2/
The bits and pieces I have found do not always fit into the history I was taught in school. In fact, they often contradict it.