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.
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.
He didn’t start a war. Had Porter carried orders from the President to enter Pensacola Bay and provoke the Confederates into firing on his ship, he would have done so. If that meant having to ram the tug the Meigs on board to accomplish those orders, Porter would have done so. Porter did not do that. He stopped for the tug and Meigs showed him the order from Col. Brown to not enter Pensacola Bay. Had Porter been given a “secret order” by the President, Porter would have shown Meigs that order. Then told Meigs to get off his ship and allow him to carry out the orders of the President of the United States.
The fact that Porter did not enter Pensacola Harbor after being shown Col. Brown’s order, indicates to me that Porter was not in possession of any orders from the President other that those we already know about.
The reason for the British flag. The Confederates would not have fired on Powhatan if they thought she was British.