The dates that these orders were issued is the key. They were well before April 12. I wonder if Beauregaurd had an inkling that there was more afoot than what was going on at Sumter?
So we now see there was a possible contengincey plan for Texas too. It could be that the other events overshadowed Texas and that's why some of us were just not aware of it. I don't remember reading of it until Joe brought it up.
To have ships and men in place to block any aid by sea for the Gulf forts, and access to NOLA via the Mississippi plugged, then add the additional troops for the few that Slemmer had at Pickens, well, it sort of looks like a larger plan. Ft Morgan was a sitting duck like Pickens.
Charleston was already in the mix. What was left? Savannah? That would have been easy to take care of for the Union.
The Confederate leaders knew any of the Virginia ports were out of the question. They were too close to DC.
With any hope of aid for the Confederacy through the known ports taken out of the equation, the only thing left to do was start moving into the Confederate States from the North with ground troops.
Why am I seeing the Alamo but with Lincoln as Santa Ana? It’s almost the same type of plan. The one thing they may not have considered is that the Confederate Army had a larger force than those in the Alamo and they were not going down easily. There were too many Confederate leaders who had already been in a real war and not just war games at West Point. That was the craw sticker. The Confederate's knew what they needed to do and even if it was messy, they were willing to do it. I think the Northern leaders sold the Southern soldiers a bit short. They didn't think they would stick it out.
Pam