but he had other orders besides those, and those we’ve never seen.”
How do we know this?
“does that sound like Porter wrote it?”
Very definitely, it sounds as if Porter wrote it. Relief of command, other than by normal rotation, is a career killer in the United States Navy. Porter knew this. He had no desire to harm Mercer. All he wanted is his ship. He felt it was necessary reassure Mercer that the relief would not in any way related to his performance as the Captain of Powhatan. And that that relief would not jeopardize his career in the Navy. Porter would have understood this. I doubt that Lincoln would have.
Well I know it because I've read it among the reams of text i've read regarding this incident. In order for you to know it, you'll either have to read through a bunch of material till you find it, or wait until I find it again and send you a link.
I did find this just now.
https://www.nytimes.com/1861/04/13/archives/capt-mercer-and-the-powhatan.html
Very definitely, it sounds as if Porter wrote it. Relief of command, other than by normal rotation, is a career killer in the United States Navy. Porter knew this. He had no desire to harm Mercer. All he wanted is his ship. He felt it was necessary reassure Mercer that the relief would not in any way related to his performance as the Captain of Powhatan. And that that relief would not jeopardize his career in the Navy. Porter would have understood this. I doubt that Lincoln would have.
If I remember correctly, Mercer never recovered from what he viewed as a horrible dishonor and died not too long thereafter. March of 1862.