Well somebody ordered the fleets to Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens. General Scott had advised against it, many in Lincolns cabinet were against starting the war, one of Fox's ship captains refused an order to approach Fort Sumter because he did not want to be involved in starting the war. Many Union men in government and the top military were against any move to provoke this war, but it seems Lincoln was surely for it.

The starting of the Civil War by Lincoln, except for the attempt on Fort Pickens, was not a sneak attack, it was a well orchastrated manuver involving many people. He provoked the Confederates to act, an act that did not cause the death of anyone, then called for 75,000 troops to invade the South. He recklessy unleashed the terrors of war when it was not necessary. He refused to talk with the South, he never tried to, his silence towards the Southerners spoke volumes to them of his reluctance to solve the problem.

Every move Lincoln and his predecessor made escellated America towards Civil War. In fact the growth of secession may have been stopped if Lincoln had negotiated with the South. The majority of Southerners, prior to the call for troops, were looking for Lincoln to assure them safety and protection, but he did not. With the call for troops the South went from pro-union to pro-secession.

Now the South is not without blame, South Carolina was trying to make a political point, and other states joined in to support her right to secede. It was a rush to secession that was really not that popular with people, a people who looked to a weak Federal government for protection but no reassurances from that body was ever made to them.

After months of a growing secession movement and an federal government not willing to stop it, and a new president that seemed to disown the Southern people, the act to send troops into the South broke the camels back and sent floods of Southern volunteers to join the fight to stop the invasion.

The Southern people had been given promises of a peaceful end to the crisis from Washington but the act of Lincoln trying to reinforce Fort Sumter with a fleet of wareships and troops, and the what happened at Fort Pickens alerted all Southerners to the aggressive nature of Lincoln. When Lincoln called for the invasion of South it brought forth anger and a desire to resist Lincolns forces at all cost.

The South made no aggression upon any Northern state or city, and a passive aggression towards the Federal Government within their own states as each state had a right to do.

If Lincoln did not want war he should have made peace then negotiate with the Southern people. They were Americans with long American histories, he could have tried with them first before declaring war on them.
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David Upton