“Only David Porter’s super secret hand written orders were signed by Lincoln.”
Then how do you know what they said. Or is that your imagination, hope?
The Confederates, if they thought Lincoln could send forces of thousands against Charleston, were stupid.
Only 16,000 men in the entire U.S. Army. Over 14,000 of them stationed West of the Mississippi River. The remainder posted all over the United States at that time. No call up of the militia had been issued. They would have known that the Navy could not support a large scale operation, because it did not have the ships to do so. The Navy had 42 ships in commission at the time. Twenty or so were in distant seas on patrol. Half of the remainder were in Naval Shipyards and unavailable. That left Lincoln about 10 warships. Some of them were sail powered and unsuitable for the task. 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.
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.