Here is the order to Captain Samuel Mercer relieving him of command of the Powhatan. This order was hand written by Lincoln, and hand carried by Lieutenant Porter. Lieutenant Porter's own hand written orders from Lincoln have never been released. Porter never detailed what was in them, but clearly they authorized him to fire on Confederate Ships and Confederate shore emplacements, because that is exactly what he did.
1861 Order to Captain Samuel Mercer.(Confidential.)
WASHINGTON CITY, April 1, 1861
SIR:--Circumstances render it necessary to place in command of your ship (and for a special purpose) an officer who is fully informed and instructed in relation to the wishes of the Government, and you will therefore consider yourself detached. But in taking this step the Government does not in the least reflect upon your efficiency or patriotism; on the contrary, have the fullest confidence in your ability to perform any duty required of you. Hoping soon to be able to give you a better command than the one you now enjoy, and trusting that you will have full confidence in the disposition of the Government toward you, I remain, etc.,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
So yeah, about your "accidentally signed a document in a pile of other documents" bullsh*t. No, Lincoln didn't "accidentally" relieve Mercer of Command and put Porter in his place. It was quite deliberate.
“Thus two projects got under way at the same time. The Sumter mission, pressed chiefly by Welles and Blair, was largely a naval expedition commanded by Fox; the Pickens expedition, sponsored by Seward, was an Army affair led by Meigs....
Inevitably, there were contests for the limited resources for these projects. Welles intended the navy’s most powerful steamer, the Powhatan, to be part of Fox’s fleet, but Seward wanted it for Meig’s expedition. Placing an order assigning the ship to the Pickens fleet before the President in a pile of other documents, he got Lincoln’s signature.
On learning what happened, Welles dragged Seward to the White House, where, though it was nearly midnight, Lincoln had not gone to bed. Confronted with the problem, the President, as Welles remembered, ‘took upon himself the whole blame, said it was carelessness, heedlessness on his part’ and that ‘he ought to have been more careful and attentive’. He directed that the Powhatan be restored to Fox’s expedition.
Even then there was evidence of the total confusion that characterized the administration....the directive reassigning the ship was signed ‘Seward’. Lt David Porter, in command of the Powhatan, received the new order...but declined to follow it; a directive from the Secretary of State could not supersede his original orders signed by the President...” - Lincoln, by David Donald
Secretary of State William H. Seward, Captain Montgomery C. Meigs of the US Army, and Porter devised a plan for the relief of Fort Pickens. The principal element of their plan required use of the steam frigate USS Powhatan, which would be commanded by Porter and would carry reinforcements to the fort from New York. Because no one was above suspicion in those days, the plan had to be implemented in complete secrecy; not even Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles was to be advised.[26]
Welles was in the meantime preparing an expedition for the relief of the garrison at Fort Sumter. As he was unaware that Powhatan would not be available, he included it in his plans. When the other vessels assigned to the effort showed up, the South Carolina troops at Charleston began to bombard Fort Sumter, and the Civil War was on. The relief expedition could only wait outside the harbor. The expedition had little chance to be successful in any case; without the support of the guns on Powhatan, it was completely impotent. The only contribution made by the expedition was to carry the soldiers who had defended Fort Sumter back to the North following their surrender and parole. - Wiki
Hence the folly of someone taking one order, without any context, and turning it into a nefarious plot by the evil mastermind Lincoln. And the folly of believing Lincoln or anyone else had total control, or even knew what they were doing!
In the month he was President prior to the SOUTH opening fire on Ft Sumter, Lincoln was just beginning to learn how to be President. He had opposing counsel on all sides offering a multitude of solutions. At no time COULD he KNOW how the South would react, and he often guessed wrong. Ships went where he didn’t want, or didn’t sail at all, or sailed to the wrong place. Orders went astray, or were badly worded, and that was only on HIS side! He heard every possible variation on how the South would react.
It was the age old problem of “intelligence”. Intelligence is often totally wrong. It often conflicts - been there, seen that during my years in the military - and someone who can guess what to believe correctly over half the time is a genius.
You, DiogenesLamp, are writing like someone who had never read an intelligence report or been tasked to provide alternatives to a boss. I suspect you have never worked on war plans, let alone on planning battlefield operations. You’ve read too many conspiracy theories and had too little experience in real world missions.
Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
Learn it.