Lincoln didn't start the war. This argument seems similar to President Obama's repeated claim that terrorism isn't about Islam.
He didn’t start the war. He just provoked a reaction by sending in the troops.
Here is a piece of history I learned this last year. Lincoln sent a war fleet to Charleston to attack the Confederates, and the orders of this war fleet were known to the confederates. They knew those ships were coming there to attack them because that was what the orders said which were issued to these warships.
They knew these ships were going to attack them, and that's why they thought it was necessary to take control of Ft. Sumter. They didn't want to get caught between the guns of the warships and the guns of Ft. Sumter.
But they don't teach stuff like that in the history books. It doesn't fit the narrative.