The Capture of New Orleans by Union Forces Scott Abel Civil War The Union had a superior navy

over the Confederacy throughout the entire war and this advantage was exploited by Union naval commanders such as David Farragut. Success by the United States Navy proved to help bring about a favorable outcome to the Union. The capture of New Orleans in 1862 by Union forces, made possible by the United States Navy, and to be a decisive action that ultimately helped bring about a decisive Union victory over the Confederacy. The capture of New Orleans was made possible by Farraguts planning and bypassing of the Confederate forts of the Mississippi River. Flag-Officer David G. Farragut of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron in the United States Navy made preparations to occupy the city of New Orleans and control the Mississippi River. A part of the preparations Farragut made was the establishment of a procedure in dealing with possible Confederate counter-attacks and the use of enemy fire rafts against his squadron. Farragut ordered his guard vessels to look out for enemies and signal back to him or fire its cannons and give the Coston signals varying on the danger the guard vessel was in. Also, the flag-officer determined that fire rafts should be dealt with by attempting to tow the burning vessels to the shore and douse the fire out. Another way that Farragut ordered to defend against fire rafts was to use gunboats equipped with fire buckets, hatchets, axes, and towlines to tow the fire rafts to mid channel, let them pass the main squadron, and then to sink them to protect the Union store ships. Farragut ordered his squadron to avoid getting underway unless in imminent

peril and that the commanding officer on the vessel had reason to believe that the flagofficer was unaware of that threat. Also, Farragut ordered the cessation of practice firing and the extinguishing or concealing any light that might give away the location of a Union vessel.1 Farragut planned how he would enter the Mississippi River to seize New Orleans and implemented his plan with astonishing results. Farragut planned for the Union gunboats to bombard Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson and then bypass the fortresses to secure a landing area upriver from the forts where Federalist forces could disembark. On April 16, 1862, Farragut commenced the bombardment of Fort Jackson and burned down the citadel. By April 18, Union naval forces had disabled a heavy columbiad, or artillery piece, and kept Confederates away from the parapet guns for a good amount of the time. A strong northwest wind and powerful currents prevented an immediate attack by Farraguts forces. Union casualties on the first day resulted in one dead and the Union lost a mortal vessel on the second day of the siege. Farraguts plans to avoid fire rafts paid off, because five of these vessels were sent downriver and resulted only in the Sciota and Kineo colliding into each other. The extensive bombardment of the forts had caused the shortages of ammunition in the fleet.2
1

D.G. Farragut to Western Blockading Squadron, April 17, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 131 D.G. Farragut to Western Blockading Squadron, April 17, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 131 David Farragut, General Order Regarding Fire Rafts, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904),133-134 2 D.G. Farragut to Captain T. Bailey, April 17, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 132 D.G. Farragut to Commander Henry H. Bell, April 17, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 133

Besides the forts, another significant obstacle prevented the squadron from advancing up the Mississippi River and that was a boom that was stretched across the river. On the evening of April 20th, Commander Henry H. Bell planned to remove this boom made out chain, but despite Bells careful planning to break the chain and remove the hulks of vessels, the heavy current made it too difficult to destroy the chains by hammers, steel saws, or powder. The powder would have been ignited with Commander Bell showing a red light from his vessel. The Confederate placed boom and forts merely slowed Union forces down, rather than stopped them all together.3 By the 23rd of April, Flag-Officer Farragut determined his forces were ready to advance up the Mississippi River to New Orleans and developed a plan to achieve this objective. Despite the opinion of many of his subordinates, with an exception of Captain David Porter, Farragut decided that to continue to bombard the forts until they were rendered ineffective was not the right decision, because the mortar vessels were low on ammunition and could not sustain the bombardment for long. Farragut planned to move his gunboats past the forts and expressed his opinion in that the squadron must conquer or be conquered. Farragut ordered that two lines be formed and at the beginning of each line would be his larger warships and each division of ships would be followed by a division of smaller gunboats. The First Division of Ships was to be led by the flagship Hartford, which would be first on the portside followed by the Brooklyn and Richmond
D.G. Farragut to Gideon Welles, April 21, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 134-135
3

H. Bell to his division, April 20, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 138 D. Farragut to Gideon Welles, April 21, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 134-135

respectively. The starboard line was to be led by the Second Division of Ships, which composed of the Pensacola and Mississippi.4 On April 24, 1862 at around 2:05 am, Farragut signaled for the attacked the forts with two seemingly ordinary red lights. His little fleet took until around 3:30 am to get under way and managed to take down enough of the chain for the squadron to pass through. Unlike in the previous plan, Captain Bailey led the right column in his gunboat, Cayuga, to attack Fort St. Philip, while the left column attacked Fort Jackson. Porter positioned his forces and attempted to provide cover fire with the mortar vessels. The dense smoke that filled the air prevented good visibility, which allowed the Confederate ironclad ram, Manassas, push a fire raft downriver towards the Hartford and forced her aground. Despite this maneuver, the Hartford was set ablaze, but the crew managed to put the fire out. Thirteen Confederate gunboats and two ironclads named Manassas and Louisiana attacked the Union squadron. The Union gunboat Varuna was ahead of the squadron, which contributed to her coming under attack from two gunboats and resulting in combat that saw all three vessels sink to the bottom. Eleven of the Confederate gunboats were sunk in the engagement, while three Union gunboats went missing. The ironclad Manassas attacked the Mississippi at full speed, but Captain Smith and the crew of the Mississippi steered clear of the ram by around fifty yards. As a result, the Manassas ran aground and was destroyed by the guns of the Mississippi.5
4

J. M. Wainwright to Commander David D. Porter, June 1, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 145 D. Farragut to Henry Bell, April 17, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 133 Farragut to his Squadron, April 20, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 160 5 Farragut to Gideon Welles, April 25, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart

The squadron bypassed the forts and protected the landing area of Quarantine Bayou so that General Butler could unload his troops. There were still some Confederate gunboats and the sixteen gun ironclad Louisiana remaining by the forts, so Farragut left the gunboats Wissahickon and Kineo to protect the landing area. Farragut decided not to wait for the forts to surrender, but rather advanced up to New Orleans, reaching the city on the 25th of April. Throughout the morning, the squadron witnessed burning vessels loaded with cotton floating down the Mississippi. Farragut witnessed much destruction of property, including maritime vessels, and wrote described the destruction as awful. Some Confederate earthworks were constructed outside of the city, but these forts were silenced and bypassed. Farragut sent Captain Bailey to demand the surrender of New Orleans, but he was told by the mayor that the city was under martial law and that he had to ask the military commander, General Lovell. Lovell refused to surrender, so Farragut sent Bailey down to General Butler with local steamships so that he could ferry Union troops into the city. General Lovell quickly left the city and the mayor surrendered New Orleans. A marine guard under Lieutenant Kautz of the Navy and Lieutenant Broome of the Marines were ordered to raise the flag of the Union from the customs house.6 Farragut was informed by Captain Bailey on the 29th of April that Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip had surrendered, but had violated the articles of surrender by
(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 152 Farragut to G.V. Fox, April 25, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 153-155 Farragut to Gideon Welles, May 6, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904),155-159 6 Farragut to Fox, April 25, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 153-155 Farragut to Welles, May 6, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 155-159

destroying their gunboats and the ironclad Louisiana. The great port city of New Orleans was now completely in Union hands, but none of the Confederate ironclads were captured, including those still under construction, such as the Mississippi. With the capture of this city, Farragut wrote that his large ships could go as far north as Baton Rouge and his gunboats could reach as far as Vicksburg. This allowed for the severing of supplies from the western Confederate States from the rest of the rebels, so the capture of New Orleans was not only a tactical victory for Union forces, but a decisive strategic victory that made fighting the war much more difficult for the Confederacy.7 The Union victory over the Confederacy at New Orleans proved to be a decisive use of naval power. Farragut and his subordinates managed to act professionally and bravely in the face of enemy fire, which paid off with a victory that undoubtedly pleased those who supported the Union. This victory helped the supporters of the Union bring about the eventual reunification of the United States of America. Honor Code:

Farragut to Welles, May 6, 1862, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion: Western Blockading Squadron, February 21 to July 14, 1862, ed. Charles Stewart (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 155-159