[DiogenesLamp]

The American Civil War—the single most significant event in all of U.S. history—began on April 12, 1861 with the firing on Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor.

It began on April 3, 1861 when Lincoln launched warships (Powhatan, Pocahontas, Pawnee, Harriet Lane, the Yankee, the Nashville, Uncle Ben, the Baltic and others) to attack the confederates at Charleston, and to whom copies of the orders to attack them had been passed.

Had Lincoln not sent those ships, they would have felt no need to neutralize the fort, and Major Anderson himself would have evacuated it had he just a few days more time before the conflict began.

But that is history they don't teach, and you have to go to a great deal of trouble to find it.

Far more comforting to some is the belief that the good guys beat the bad guys and that the bad guys were bad.

[BroJoeK]

kaehurowing: "The American Civil War—the single most significant event in all of U.S. history—began on April 12, 1861 with the firing on Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor."

DiogenesLamp: "It began on April 3, 1861 when Lincoln launched warships (Powhatan, Pocahontas, Pawnee, Harriet Lane, the Yankee, the Nashville, Uncle Ben, the Baltic and others) to attack the confederates at Charleston, and to whom copies of the orders to attack them had been passed."

DL, you well know better, but refuse to acknowledge that:

1. Lincoln's final orders to his commanders were, in effect: No first use of force.

2. Lincoln's force was intended only to resupply Fort Sumter, not attack Confederates.

3. Lincoln believed his force strong enough to resupply against opposition, but not to defeat Confederates surrounding Fort Sumter.

4. Jefferson Davis ordered preparations for military assault to seize Fort Sumter a month before Lincoln ordered a resupply mission to Union troops there.

5. Davis ordered his military to take Fort Sumter, by force if necessary, before Lincoln's resupply ships arrived.

6. Confederates' artillery assault on Fort Sumter was far from their first act of war against the United States.
   Indeed, one of their first was a similar attack on President Buchanan's unarmed resupply ship, Star of the West, in January, 1861.

In February 1861 Jefferson Davis promised he would start war if he thought Confederate "integrity" was "assailed".
In March 1861 President Lincoln promised he would not "assail" and so Confederates could only have war if they themselves started it.
At Fort Sumter, in April 1861, both Davis & Lincoln kept their promise.

In sum, Confederates were military aggressors against Union troops in Union Fort Sumter, thus starting Civil War.

All of which DiogenesLamp well knows, but refuses to acknowledge.