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To: GOPcapitalist
Sumter was shot up because a fleet of yankee warships was en route there. That is hardly the behavior of somebody who was leaving us alone.

If the supply fleet had been allowed to complete their mission, then food and supplies would have been landed at Sumter and the ships would have sailed back to New York. Charleston would not have been bombarded, nobody would have been injured, and y'all would have been left alone.

86 posted on 01/15/2004 4:06:31 AM PST by Non-Sequitur
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To: Non-Sequitur
Let's be honest... (I know, sometimes its hard in the heat of the moment)... but Ft. Sumter was the flash-point. Both sides knew it, and both sides exploited it.

Don't pretend that Lincoln didn't send the fleet down there to start something. He did.

Don't pretend that the South wasn't hoping that Lincoln would do just that so they could start something. They were.

The times were primed for war... any cause, any spark would ignite it. Lincoln sent his warships to Sumter because he knew the South would fight. This drawing of "first blood" by the South was just what he needed, desired, and got to call for his volunteers.

Lincoln was not the innocent you portray him to be... Neither was the South the guilty you portray them to be. It was war by mutual consent...

90 posted on 01/15/2004 5:19:57 AM PST by carton253 (It's time to draw your sword and throw away the scabbard... General TJ Jackson)
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To: Non-Sequitur
If the supply fleet had been allowed to complete their mission, then food and supplies would have been landed at Sumter and the ships would have sailed back to New York. Charleston would not have been bombarded, nobody would have been injured, and y'all would have been left alone.

It was an unreasonable of Lincoln to expect that a fleet of warships from a hostile power would be permitted entry into Charleston harbor. Their mission, which included orders to fight their way in when they were inevitably refused entrance, was one of inherent hostility. The simple fact is that without Lincoln's fleet there would have been no bombardment. It was the direct and causal instigating event.

135 posted on 01/15/2004 11:54:03 AM PST by GOPcapitalist
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