Yes Lincoln was told that Ft. Sumter would be left alone even tho it was blocking the main harbor of the Confederacy. He was told that they would not be fired upon unless the Union tried to reinforce it.
Lincoln whose call for 75,000 volunteers could have had no other meaning than he was going to attack the South, immediately ordered the Star of the West to resupply Ft. Sumter in order to start a war he wanted.
BTW to all those jackasses who like to point out how the North whipped the South. At the end, there were twice as many dead Yankees as Confederates. Some whipping. They simply overwhelmed the South with numbers. Not all Yankees are so rude but there always are some.
Except the true meaning which was that the belligerents had already shown their murderous intent by waging war against their neighbor states and he, like any reasonable leader, needed to do his duty to defend his country.
It was the slavrocracy who wanted war - and got it.
So, if Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers meant he was going to attack the south, what did Jeff Davis’ call for 100,000 men mean? By your logic, he was certainly going to attack the US.
Left alone until it was starved into surrender. Was that really an option?
To start with, Lincoln's call for 75,000 troops was on April 15, 1861. That's three days AFTER the rebels fired on Ft. Sumter. Jefferson Davis's call for 100,000 men was on March 6.
Second, the Star of the West was sent by President Buchanan on January 9, 1861, nearly two months before Lincoln took office.
Not all Yankees are so rude but there always are some.
Not all southerners are so ignorant of the facts, but there are always some.