The correct answer is <span>Lincoln did not want armed conflict at Fort Sumter, but Davis acted quickly to cripple Union forces. </span> In the fort Sumter situation, Lincoln did not want an armed conflict and was against there being fighting over the fort. Lincoln wanted to avoid the war completely and preserve the union but this wasn't possible because the states that seceded initiated the war first with their secession and then with the attack on the Fort.
Jefferson Davis on the other hand couldn't care less about about those in the Fort and wanted to find a quick way to cripple the armies of the North and do it fast so that they didn't have a way to recuperate from it or to retaliate. He believed that with such a move he would dissuade the Union from waging wars and would leave them be out of fear.
