7. President Buchanan negotiated an agreement primarily with South Carolina legislators in Congress that he would not reinforce or make any changes regarding forts there and the state would ensure the peace
8. By April of 1861, Union General Winfield Scott had drawn up evacuation orders for Fort Sumpter after Colonel Anderson transferred his garrison there in the middle of the night in conflict with the agreement
9. By April of 1861, Colonel Anderson had sent communications that Fort Sumpter should not be resupplied and he offered South Carolina to surrender the fort as soon as supplies ran out
10. In spite of all this, on April 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln personally insisted on reinforcing Fort Sumpter and issued an order for a joint naval / civilian mission to send supplies and reinforcements to the fort
11. When South Carolina discovered the reinforcement effort was in progress, General Beauregard had no choice but to fire on the fort and force an immediate surrender just as the supplies and warship arrived
12. After Colonel Anderson surrendered the fort, South Carolina allowed his garrison to fire salutes to the Union before evacuating
So the question is, now that you know these easily verifiable facts, do you believe that the firing on Fort Sumpter could have started a war which left 620,000 Americans dead, more American dead than all other wars combined. Send me message. I would like to hear your opinion either way.
P.S.
The first casualties in armed north-south conflict actually occurred on July 18, 1861, when Abraham Lincoln, against the will of General Scott and his military advisers, decided to invade Virginia. Virginia was a Union member at the time of the Fort Sumpter conflict but seceded after the resupply attempt. At the first battle of Bull Run in Manassas, there were over 4,000 casualties, the majority falling on the Union side.
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