You've been informed you when hostilities started.
You have also been shown all the forts and arsenals that were seized, well before Lincoln was inaugurated.
[TABLE="class: brtb_item_table"][TBODY][TR][TD]On December 27, Francis Pickens, the newly elected governor of South Carolina, demanded that Anderson return to Fort Moultrie. The major refused. Pickens also ordered the state militia to occupy Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney and the U.S. Arsenal, all of which occurred without incident.
Then, South Carolina forces began building defensive works around the harbor. Some were directed at Fort Sumter, others on Morris and Sullivan’s Islands were directed to fire into the shipping channels. On James Island, the long-abandoned Fort Johnson was occupied and guns mounted. Simultaneously, inside Fort Sumter, Anderson’s command, aided by three Army Corps of Engineer officers and 40 civilian employees, began mounting cannon and improving the fort’s defenses.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., President James Buchanan’s response to the growing crisis was to send the civilian ship, Star of the West, with troops and supplies to Fort Sumter. Citadel cadets assigned to a battery on Morris Island and troops at Fort Moultrie fired upon the ship on January 9, and it turned back without accomplishing its mission.[/TD][/TR][/TBODY][/TABLE]
The Problem in Charleston Harbor
=============================================
=============================================
"CHARLESTON, S.C. --- Gray-clad cadets from South Carolina's historic military college fired cannons Saturday on a barren, wind-swept island on Charleston Harbor to re-enact the 150th anniversary of a key episode leading up to the Civil War.
The event recalled what some consider the first shots of the war -- the 1861 firing on the steamship Star of the West that was trying to reach Fort Sumter with supplies and 200 federal troops. Cadets manning a battery on Morris Island hit the ship and forced it to turn back.
...
The incident is ingrained in the history of the military college, founded in 1842. The Citadel's regimental colors carry eight Confederate battle ribbons.
The best drilled Citadel cadet still receives the Star of the West Medal each spring. It incorporates wood from the historic vessel."
Citadel cadets re-enact first shots of Civil War The Augusta Chronicle
You can deny it as insignificant, and say war was not a foregone conclusion, (it was) -- but that January 1861 incident was recognized by all involved at the time as an important milestone and a full-on escalation of the dispute over Federal installations and most certainly the gasoline that was being tossed by the Southerners to ignite the fire of war.
Before Lincoln ever stepped into office.
And if you really want to get picky in some of those January events....
Barrancas: The First Shots Fired in the Rebellion
"The firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston's harbor traditionally marks the opening salvos of the Rebellion. But before this assault on April 14, 1861, there was another battle—the
first shots of the Civil War—hundreds of miles to the south in Florida.
On Jan. 8, 1861, United States Army guards repelled a group of men intending to take Fort Barrancas in Pensacola Harbor. Historians say that this event could be considered the first shots fired on Union forces in the Civil War.
Military History Online - Fort Barrancas
Tell us again about "The War of Northern Aggression."
Gowan.