You phrased it much better than I could Dennis. I couldn't agree with you more either. The background on Sumter has been hidden or just locked away for so long that it's not easy for some people to accept the fact that Lincon was indeed mortal or there may have been some smarmy stuff going on that just wasn't written about in the history textbooks. Those textbooks are where most of us and others got our first 'official' version of the events of April 12, 1861. There was preparation for war on both sides a long time before the first shot was fired. I didn't know until a while back when I did a look up on them that the state militias had taken control of most of the arsenals in the Confederate states waaay before Sumter. Instead of one General giving a random order, if the paperwork were placed in proper order, we can see that Sumter was no accident.

Pam