@Enoch111
Here is a good starting point from which to work from. Some books from which I work from are:
1.) The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. Jeff Davis. Da Capo Press, 1990.
2.) And the War Came. Kenneth M. Stampp. LSU Press. 1990
3.) Days of Defiance. Maury Klein. Knopf. 1997.
It's important to understand at the first, who owned the Forts in the harbors of the coastal states. Jeff Davis, in the book already mentioned, says on p. 179, "Forts, arsenals, navy yards, and other public property of the Federal govt. were ceded by the state, within whose limits they were subject to the condition...that they should be used solely and exclusively for the purposes for which they were granted."
He goes on to say, "The ultimate ownership of the soil, or eminent domain, remains with the people of the state in which it lies, by virtue of their sovereignty."
The point here is that once the Fort was not being used by the Federal govt. for it's original purpose, it automatically went back to the State. Thus the Federal govt's. attempt to reinforce Sumter to defend it from S. Carolina, was an act of war.
Plus...The Federal govt. had abandoned Ft. Sumter years before. The original legislative act that ceded the forts in Charlston Harbor, gave the condition that they must be repaired and made ready in at least 3 years from this act. That was 1805. Sumter was in in disrepair in 1861 with no one in it. The only reason troops were now in it, was because they were illegally, and deceptively moved from Fort Moultrie, because Sumter was more easily to defend. Another act of war. See Jeff Davis p. (179-180).
Stranger