@not_br549 @istvan @lanodan @hj @Hoss @ProfessionalPetFoodTaster @gentoobro @mangeurdenuage He changed his mind after Fort Sumter. When the war broke out, he was running LSU, which was, at the time, a military academy. He thought the war was a bad idea and that it was going to take years, that all of the politicians involved were over-confident (the Union and the Confederacy both expected the war would be won in a few months), and that it'd be a mistake to trust the war to Lincoln.