"I considered the evacuation of Fort Moultrie, under all the circumstances, a direct violation of the distinct understanding between the authorities of the Government at Washington and those who were authorized to act on the part of the State, and bringing on a state of war." F.W. Pickens, Governor of S.C., Dec. 28, 1860. "

Certainly Governor Pickens would consider the evacuation of Fort Moultrie as a violation of the diplomatic agreements between he and President Buchannan. From hindsight we can see what the occupation of Fort Sumter lead to, The evacuation of Fort Moultrie and the occupation of Fort Sumter were provocations, but the situation could have been salvaged had Buchannan been more forcefull in ordering Fort Sumter evacuated. Instead of that, The President allowed the relief expedition to proceed and the straw that broke the back to me was the "Star of the West" where the actual "first shots" were fired. It was the "Star of the West" incident that prompted six additional states to seceed and escalated the situation in Washington D.C.

It became a shooting war and a siege of Fort Sumter at that point, new fortification were begun to tighten the noose around Fort Sumter and prevent additional relief attempts. Those were 'military actions' in responce to an act of War. It was appearent at that point that South Carolina was not going to peaceable allow the federals to reenforce that garrison as they had done in the 1832 Nullification Crisis at Fort Moultrie.

Formal declarations aside, a state of war between South Carolina and the United States existed at that point. By the time Lincoln became President on March 4th, the military situation in Charleston Harbor made any such relief effort almost improbable with any chance of success as was proven just two short years later when a much stronger Union fleet armed with the most powerful of the newest weapons, the Ironclad Monitors, could not breech that harbor defences. Even later with Fort Sumter reduced to rubble the other defences held the harbor.

A reasoning person has to wonder just exactly what the real objective was in sending the relief expedition to Fort Sumter of April 1861. Did they honestly expect to be able to reach the fort and disembark those men and supplies? I don't think so. I don't see how they could have reasonable expected to do that. As long as Fort Moultrie remained in southern control a ship docking at Fort Sumter and being stationary to unload supplies would be a sitting duck for the gunner at Fort Moultrie. To silence Fort Moultrie would require a land invasion of South Carolina by a military force to reoccupy that position. A force that they did not have.

But they did need the political spark to justify starting a larger war.