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There was no declaration of war, because Lincoln did not recognise the Confederacy as a sovereign nation. He just wanted his seven states back.

The Confederacy claimed that it did not want a war, and would only fight if the North forced them to.

When Lincoln declared that he would hold on to the US Army garrison on Fort Sumter (South Carolina), The South took that as provocation, and fired on the island-fort.

Lincoln had no choice but to evacuate the garrison. Then he appealed for volunteer-troops.

That sounded enough like a declaration of war to send four of the undecided slave-states of the Upper South into the arms of the Confederacy.

The war was on.

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13y ago

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