"Anderson knew that a three man commission left on the 24th of December to negotiate for the forts (note the 's' on the end) with the President of the United States. He may have also known the day of the meeting was scheduled for the 27th of December."

Another excellant point.

Which again leads one to believe that there may have been a conspiracy. I some how have difficulty in believing in "one person conspiracies" (Anderson being paranoid).

From what we have just been able to locate, by just scratching the surface, that outside of just maybe some talk on the street there was no creditable threat to the Fort Moultrie garrison of immediate attack by any organized military force. Note, that the South Carolina Militia had to be called up to respone to the occupation of Fort sumter and the problems that this caused. And Anderson himself stated that it would take an organized force (which the Militia was not at that period of time) to take Fort Moultrie even as lightly manned it was.

Anderson's connections with both Lincoln and Scott make him a suspicious choice to relieve the Garrison commander who had been there for years. Why was that Commander relieved?

Wouldn't he have had a better handle on the situation in that he knew the political leaders and the people of the area better than Anderson? Maybe that was the problem in Lincoln's estimation?