Fort Sumter was firmly in Confederate hands well before they made their secession vote and over a month before the "popular" referendum was taken.
Be honest about it if you are really a student of history. Jefferson Davis had this self declared 'Confederacy' of seven small states from February until April. None of the upper south slaves states where the real power and population existed had jumped to his side, especially the most powerful slave state of Virginia.
Davis needed a 'shooting war' to get those states to join him or his Southern Confederacy would have collapsed under it's own ideology and inability to even deliver the mail, yet alone manage a nation.
That is why he ordered to firing on Sumter. He needed the upper south badly and without them, the entire secession gamble would have collapsed.
If he had allowed the resupply ships in, and the stand off at Charleston harbor had dragged on for more months he would have shown that his Confederacy was a toothless power and the Upper South would have never joined with him. Even rabid secessionists in the deep south would have questioned why they were doing what they did.
The Confederacy needed the war to get the upper south, especially Virginia to join the Confederacy to have any chance of surviving.
Unfortunately, his plan worked.
Dang good points.
Too few seem to realize that the whole issue from the establishment of the CSA to Sumter was about who would gain control of the remaining 8 slave states.
If the USA retained them all, the CSA was doomed to a short life. If the CSA gained them all, the USA would be unable to reestablish the Union. Lincoln himself recognized this publicly.
In actual fact, what happened was that the Upper South states split down the middle, resulting in a long and bloody war.
Nonsense. The States freely entered the Union, they could freely leave if they wish. South Carolina voted to leave peacefully, as did the rest of the 7, but Lincoln and the North would not accept peaceful secession - which was constitutional. Then, when Lincoln attempted to conscript Virgianians to fight against the rest of the south - only then did Virginia say no. Virginia also voted to leave the Union - well within their rights to do so. Lincoln, again refused to accept this, and invaded Virginia.
The result what we have now - a massive federal government that constantly infringes on the constutitional rights of American citizens. Well played, Lincoln, well played.