Fort Sumter wasn't unoccupied when Anderson moved his men there. Work on the fort had proceeded in fits and starts for close to 30 years. In December 1860 there was one officer and a number of workmen laboring on the fort.
Lincoln wanted the first shots fired by the South- and he got it.
Fell right into his trap did they? </sarcasm>
Would that it had been otherwise and a treaty of Secession drawn up. Not to be with the oligarchy’s plans. Such tragic loss of life, property and promise.
Shouldn't such an agreement been negotiated and agreed to before walking out and not after?
Sumter was being worked on— one poor laggard and some workmen-— then brought to strength. Point of this was it WAS calculated, and started w/ Buchanan, not Lincoln. The memory of it is not pleasant example of being forced to remain in the “union” (like healthcare... or else— same kind of logic), and nothing to do with freedom.
Oh, it (settlement) was discussed. The oligarchs would have their war, sacred to the abolitionists who anointed it. It was coming no matter what. Compensation and liberation— was never going to be borne, by the North or the South. Neither side gave a damn or were too dug in with disparate interests. A sad wasteful story. And the circles discussing were extra political people of reason— builders not destroyers or men of greed.