When I was taught American history in school, they presented it exactly as you have said. Southern hotheads got mad and decided to attack the fort.
Didn't happen that way at all. I have read the telegraph exchanges between Walker and Beauregard, I have read the messages exchanged between Beauregard and Anderson, and all other relevant communications between the parties that I have come across.
The Confederates attacked the fort because Lincoln had ordered warships to attack them if they did not cooperate with the intention of putting supplies into the fort. Beauregard and Anderson had already worked out a compromise in which Anderson would evacuate the fort, and Beauregard would not attack.
Anderson had already written the evacuation order for his men, and they were already set to evacuate in a day or so.
Then the "Harriet Lane" showed up and fired shots at the Nashville. The significance of this was that it proved the orders the Confederates had received regarding the flotilla of warships being sent to confront them was true. The Harriet Lane was one of the Warships specified in the orders for the task force, and here it was arrived at the entrance to Charleston harbor and already behaving belligerently.
So no, they weren't "pissed off". In fact, Beauregard was very saddened at the task that had been laid before him, and he undertook to follow his orders with a heavy heart. He had worked till the very last hour in an effort to forestall any attack against the fort.
Merely hours before the attack, he sent word to Anderson that if those ships attacked the Confederates, if Anderson would remain neutral, Beauregard would not attack him.
Anderson replied that if Beauregard fired on any of those ships, he would use all the cannons in the fortress to fire on Beauregard's forces.
And that was that. Lincoln set the process in motion fully well knowing that it would start a war. He did it anyway. Money was more important than lives.
Very interesting. Thanks for the history lesson!
bkmk