[Non-Sequitur]

Most of the abandonment you speak of took place before Lincoln was inaugurated, so the question should be asked why did Buchanan give them up? Lincoln did not abandon or destroy a single federal facility from the time he was inaugurated until the south started hostilities at Charleston. After that, it became a military question. The Navy abandoned and burned Norfolk on April 20 in order to keep the facilities out of the hands of the confederate forces, and at Harper's Ferry the Virginia militia were on their way to seize the facilities so they were destroyed.

[lentulusgracchus]

The Navy abandoned and burned Norfolk on April 20 in order to keep the facilities out of the hands of the confederate forces, and at Harper's Ferry the Virginia militia were on their way to seize the facilities so they were destroyed.

You just contradicted yourself. Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4th, 1861. The Union officers in charge at Norfolk and Harper's Ferry fired their facilities, then they abandoned them. Nobody shot at them. Nobody ordered them to stand down or be shot. That isn't war, which is the litmus of treason.