Nonsense. The boat had been chartered to make the trip to Sumter. The soldiers were able to make the trip without the assistance of the captain, and returned his boat to him when they were done.
Not according to Captain Abner Doubleday:
"When I asked Anderson for the wire, he said I should have a mile of it, with a peculiar smile that puzzled me for the moment. He then sent for Hall, the post quartermaster, bound him to secrecy, and told him to take three schooners and some barges which had been chartered for the purpose of taking the women and children and six months' supply of provisions to Fort Johnson, opposite Charleston."
The ship captain objected when the soldiers told him to take them to Sumter. They overpowered him.
There's been a comparision between the attack on Fort Sumter and the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The rebelists position is as ridiculous as saying that when the U.S.S. Ward fired on the Japanese midget sub operating in the Pearl Harbor security zone (and sank same), that a hitherto harmless mass of Japanese planes (just passing by of course) became enraged and attacked Battleship Row.
Walt