Funny thing that. The order taking away command of the Powhatan from Captain Mercer is available. The other order, which is Porter's explicit hand carried order of his mission has never been made public. Porter appears to have taken it to his grave. I guess he thought the public would be uninterested in what the President instructed him to do with the Powhatan.
Communication breakdown.
Communication breakdown? Well with Porter insisting that the whole affair be kept completely away from the Navy chain of command, it is understandable that communications could break down.
But it's not so simple. Porter actually received a telegram from Gideon Wells (After Wells had gotten Lincoln to agree) ordering him to return control of the ship to Captain Mercer. His response was to say that he had orders from the President which he would obey, and he therefore blatantly defied the order from the secretary of the Navy.
He then set about disguising the ship so that no one would recognize her, up to flying a British flag. Funny, because when he got to Pensacola, he was all about showing the flag and hoping to provoke an attack. Why did he feel the need for secrecy on the trip there when he felt no need for secrecy when he actually got there?
"'Lincoln reluctantly agreed', taking no notice of the incompatibility of the Pensacola scheme and the Sumter relief expedition, perhaps simply confusing the name of the ship whose presence was vital to assure success in both places.
Except it wasn't vital in Pensacola. In fact, the commander there initially treated it as a nuisance.
I think it was vital that it didn't show up in Charleston, because the other ships would have attacked Charleston if it had.
Could have been a mistake that the Powhatan went to Pensacola instead of Charleston, but Admiral Porter, in writing his memoirs said that if the Powhatan had showed up to lead the other ships, all of the ships would have been sunk. He said it was the most badly thought out operation he had ever seen.
Really odd, because the Generals had informed Lincoln it would take a force of 20,000 men to take and hold that area. Somehow Lincoln thought five warships and a troop transport with only a couple of hundred riflemen could do the job.
Either he was grossly foolish or he never expected them to actually do what their orders said they would do.
Porter was intercepted upon by Meigs and acceded (more or less) to Brown's order to stand down.
After Porter kept changing the ship's direction to avoid Meigs. He kept trying to steer around Meigs until Meigs put his ship directly in his path. He even said he thought about running Meigs over. Now why would he even contemplate running Meigs (in the Wyandotte) over? What was that?
Also all his cannons on the shoreward side loaded with shell and grapeshot? He was itching to get into a fight.
The next day spotters saw vessels bearing down on them. No vessel names, flags, captains, or intentions are listed in any of the accounts I read. Porter fired a warning shot. The vessels retreated and did not return.
I assume the dock was also approaching him in a suspicious manner, and that is why he felt the need to lob a shell into the dock area? Or did you miss that part?
I interpret them differently.
How do you interpret him trying to run down a Captain in another ship, load his cannons to attack gun crews on the shore, express regret at not being able to do so, and then fire at both approaching ships and a stationary dock with people on it?
“Porter actually received a telegram from Gideon Wells”
The telegram delivered to Powhatan was sent by Seward.
After a conference between Lincoln, Welles and Seward, Lincoln ordered Seward to recall Powhatan. Seward did as directed, but he signed the telegram “Seward” in stead of “by Order of the President”. Since Seward was not in Porter’s chain of Command and Porter was in possession of an order signed by the President. He chose to ignore the recall order by Seward.
You’re trying too hard...