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On the matter of shots fired, I was referring to prior acts of aggression by the north, not necessarily events in Charleston Harbor. From the south's perspective, a state of war already existed, an unlawful one. The enemy was known to them and they saw it as being within their rights to retaliate at any time.

From my earlier post #293 regarding any "facts" I've gotten wrong...

....

...if I've misstated anything, so be it. I'll stand corrected on sourced links or anything other than my defense of the sovereignty of the individual states. Secession was their right, and they exercised it lawfully. Lincoln and his cabal could have cared less, and proved it.

The Union was the instigator and aggressive party from the beginning.

Perhaps H.L. Menchen said it best...

The War of 1861 settled the issue of secession through brute force that cost 600,000 American lives. Americans celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, but H.L. Mencken correctly evaluated the speech: “It is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense.” Lincoln said that the soldiers sacrificed their lives “to the cause of self-determination – that government of the people, by the people, for the people should not perish from the earth.” Mencken says: “It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of people to govern themselves.” Source

Some, perhaps most of the northern soldiers, believed in the cause they fought for and I don't fault them for it. I see the southern boys the same way. It's always the soldier who pays the highest price, and we should honor his sacrifice.