One can only surmise that what they said is what Porter did. Porter never let anyone see them, which is a sharp contrast with Captain Mercer's orders from Lincoln. You can find copies of those, but you cannot find a copy of Lincoln's orders to Porter.
Porter wrote all about himself in several books, but for some reason he didn't see fit to provide a copy of the text of his orders.
It may well have been that the three naval vessels and the revenue cutter were the only ships available for the enterprise. These facts would have been known to the Confederate Government.
Just telling you about what I have read. The message traffic during the Fort Sumter event demonstrated that they were expecting invaders from various places, and had the cannons and troops ready to repel them.
It's actually a pretty neat site. It originally released the message traffic on the same date as it occurred back in 1861. If you like reading the history of this era, you will like going through this site.
It is a neat site. Have read some of the info elsewhere, some haven’t seen before. Thanks for the link.