Why did the Confederates start the war by firing the first shots on Fort Sumter?
While technically true that the South did fire the first gunshots of the war, this resulted from intentional provocation on the part of the Lincoln administration. By the time Lincoln took office, secession was well under way. The Confederate government had assumed control of numerous U.S. government “Federal” forts, arsenals and mints within the Confederate states. Union Major Robert Anderson secretly and at night moved his garrison from the weaker Fort Moultrie in the Charleston harbor to the stronger Fort Sumter. While this was taking place Lincoln s predecessor, President James Buchanan, had announced his belief in the right of secession by stating that the U.S. had no right to coerce the Southern states to rejoin the Union. Oddly enough, Lincoln had affirmed his own similar belief on the Senate floor in January, 1848. His position changed drastically once appointed President. In these next two incidences, the pattern of provocation by the North that caused the shots to be fired, w
