Replies

If he had secret orders signed by Abraham Lincoln, it does not seem to me that anything that Meigs would have done or said should have stopped Porter. Lincoln outranked Meigs.
Or Porter did not have any separate secret orders to start a war at Pensacola. If he would have had them, he would have shown them to Meigs. In the end, If that was Lincoln’s intent, Porter failed.

If he had secret orders signed by Abraham Lincoln, it does not seem to me that anything that Meigs would have done or said should have stopped Porter.

You think the President would have been okay with one navy warship deliberately ramming another navy ship that was non hostile?

How does that work?

And I notice you ignored the other questions of why disguise the warship and sail it far away from the shipping channels while pretending it is a British ship.

Or Porter did not have any separate secret orders to start a war at Pensacola.

So he's just a trigger happy loose cannon? That makes sense to you? A guy almost starts a war and it's just excessive exuberance?

I guess you and I have different views of how the military chain of command works. I don't see a lieutenant deliberately starting a war without cover from above.