Greatest Battles
FORTS JACKSON AND ST PHILIP, LOUISIANA, 18-24 APRIL 1862
The Union storms the Mississippi River at New Orleans
Stretching some 3,734km north to south, both sides of the American Civil War recognised the Mississippi River’s strategic importance. The war for the Mississippi would be one of not just riverine naval forces but also of fortifications and gun batteries situated on its banks. US Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles approved the formation of a gunboat force to fight for control of the river. As an inland waterway, the US Army claimed jurisdiction over the Mississippi and the many other rivers that fed into it, but the navy sent experienced officers to command the boats and whip them into fighting shape.
The weakest point of the Union naval blockade lay at the Mississippi’s mouth as it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. At New Orleans, the river split into four separate channels and here the rebels
had their main defensive fortifications: Fort Jackson, on the western bank, and Fort St Philip, on the eastern bank.
Despite New Orleans’ strategic location, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, had not seen fit to do much to defend the city itself. The bulk of the city’s defences were oriented to the north – the direction in which any Union offensive was expected to come, leaving it vulnerable to an attack from the south. While Forts Jackson and St Philip were themselves substantial, if a Union fleet could actually find a way past them New Orleans would be unable to repel a Federal assault.
The Northern plan for seizing New Orleans was the making of 48-year-old Commander David
Dixon Porter of the US Navy. Porter’s plan called for a bombardment of Forts Jackson and St Philip by a flotilla of 21 schooners carrying 13-inch mortars, which could loft explosive shells on high trajectories. Other warships would then make the run past the forts and head up to New Orleans. The ensuing occupation of the city would be undertaken by soldiers from the US Army.
ENTER DAVID FARRAGUT
With the plan of attack against New Orleans settled, the matter of who would lead the expedition now loomed. Porter suggested his own foster-brother, Flag Officer David Glasgow Farragut, for the command. Farragut was a Southerner, but he had scorned the secession and had remained loyal to the United States. Farragut thought the attack could work and was ready to lead it himself. He was soon given command of the expedition.
The Union’s Gulf Blockading Squadron was divided in two. The East Gulf Blockading Squadron took oversight of the coastline stretching from
Cape Canaveral on Florida’s east coast, round the southern tip of Florida, and up to St Andrew Bay. From St Andrew westward to the mouth of the
Rio Grande in Texas Farragut, aboard his flagship the USS Hartford, would have the command of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. To keep the true target of his operation secret, rumours were deliberately put out that it was headed for Texas, or to Mobile in Alabama.
CONFEDERATE DISORDER
The Confederate defence of New Orleans was poorly prepared to meet the coming Union attack. The city itself was held by Major General Mansfield Lovell,
but its more distant defences, such as Forts Jackson and St Philip, were under the command of Major General Johnson Kelly Duncan. The ‘fleet’ tasked with guarding New Orleans was organisationally unsound. Control of the ships around the city was split between three separate entities. The ironclads CSS Manassas and CSS Louisiana, along with the steam gunboats CSS Jackson and CSS Mcrae and a few tugboats, were in the hands of the Confederate Navy. However, CSS Governor Moore and CSS General Quitman, both cottonclad rams, were part of the Louisiana State Navy. Six further vessels – Defiance, Warrior, Resolute, General Breckenridge, General Lovell and Stonewall Jackson – were held by the Confederate Army’s River Defense Fleet. Neither of the latter two forces would accept orders from the Confederate Navy, thereby complicating the issue of operational control.
ON TO NEW ORLEANS
Farragut arrived at Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 February, where he linked up with 18,000 US Army soldiers under the command of Major General Benjamin F Butler. These were the troops that would be tasked with seizing the city. Farragut’s fleet was substantial. In addition to Hartford, he had its sister ships USS Brooklyn, USS Pensacol and USS Richmond. These were joined by the steam frigate USS Colorado, the steam corvettes USS Iroquois and USS Oneida, the ancient sidewheeler frigate USS Mississippi and the converted packet steamer USS Varuna. Supplementing these larger units were 11 steam gunboats and a congeries of auxiliary vessels. He was met by Porter with his mortar boat flotilla at Ship Island in early March.
News now came to Farragut that Forts Henry and Donelson were in Union hands. He also knew that the Southerners were building two big ironclads, Louisiana and Mississippi, that would be deadly to the wooden ships in his fleet. It’d be better to move before they were operational.
Beginning on 7 March, getting the ships over the shallows proved a laborious chore and the fleet was not fully across until 8 April. The mortar schooners, led by Porter in Harriet Lane, pushed up the 30km from the Head of Passes to the forts. Starting on 18 April, the mortars began lobbing shells against Fort Jackson and Fort St Philip, with each vessel hurling a 13-inch shell aloft every ten minutes. Their aim was largely accurate, thanks to the skill of the mortar-men. The forts returned fire ineffectually. The Union bombardment continued for ten hours, at the end of which Fort Jackson was ablaze. The pummelling ceased with the coming of night, and then resumed the next morning, but at a reduced rate of one shell every 30 minutes. Porter’s ammunition stocks had begun to run low, and he now understood that his original estimate, which had called for 48 hours to reduce both forts, had been wildly optimistic.
In preparation for the general assault, Farragut had every bit of superfluous equipment removed from his ships. Even their masts were reduced so that they could carry only the most limited of sail. His crews daubed their ships’ sides with mud to make them less visible in the hours of darkness and their decks were painted white to make their weapons easier to see at night. About the midships they hung heavy anchor chains as a kind of rudimentary ‘chain mail’ armour to protect the boilers behind them.
Other ships had also arrived to join the fight on the Confederate side. CSS Manassas had come, along with the cottonclad ram CSS Stonewall Jackson. The long-awaited ironclad CSS Louisiana also made its appearance but its engines were nonfunctional and its guns were not fully operational.
The obstacle of a line of eight dismasted schooner hulks across the Mississippi remained. These were hacked apart by a daring team of Union seamen in three gunboats while under heavy enemy fire. With the line severed, the Confederates towed
Louisiana further downstream, anchoring it closer to Fort St Philip. The forts’ commander, General Duncan, asked the Confederate Navy commander, John K Mitchell, to move Louisiana even further south, past the forts to the now-tattered hulk line, where he thought it would be of more use. Mitchell however declined, on the grounds that if he did so, no further work could be carried out on the ship.
The battering from the mortar boats continued for several more days, with no sign that Fort
Jackson was about to capitulate. Farragut decided that he would have to chance a run past the forts even though they had not been put out of action. At 2.00am on the morning of 24 April, the mortar barrage slackened and a pair of red lanterns on
USS Hartford’s mast gleamed, indicating that the Union fleet was to steam onward. The vanguard, Red division, under Captain Theodorus Bailey in the gunboat Cayuga led the slow advance. Behind them came the Blue division of Hartford, Brooklyn and Richmond. Farragut was high above in his flagship’s rigging, getting a better look of the unfolding night scene, all the while shouting orders to his sailors below. He came down, after being begged to do so, only just in time to avoid being hit by a Confederate shell. Taking up the rear, in the third division under Chief of Staff Henry Bell, were Iroquois and five gunboats.
Ahead, Cayuga was struck all along its length by shells from Fort St Philip. It pushed on to engage Confederate warships, set afire an enemy vessel and forced it ashore. Cayuga’s companions Oneida and Varuna moved forward. An enemy ship crossed Oneida’s bow, and with every ounce of speed it could muster, Onieda rammed it, afterwards firing its guns at any enemy in range.
Varuna, on its own, took out four Confederate ships, and was then engaged by the cottonclad Governor Moore of the Louisiana State Navy. Governor Moore approached Varuna from behind and both ships let loose with a hellstorm of fire.
The Confederate ram came so close to Varuna that it could not depress its bow gun enough to fire at the Union craft. Frustrated and desperate, its commander, Lieutenant Beverly Kennon, ordered his gun to fire through his own ship’s hull at Varuna.
Governor Moore next rammed Varuna, followed by Stonewall Jackson. When Stonewall Jackson backed off to make another ramming attack,
Varuna used the breathing space to pepper its tormentor with five eight-inch shells, and this pounding forced the Confederate ship ashore in flames. But Varuna was by now also sinking, and its captain brought it to the safety of the riverbank. Governor Moore, in the meantime, was so badly damaged by the fire from other Union warships that it too was forced ashore, and Kennon set Governor Moore ablaze to keep it out of the enemy’s hands.
Elsewhere, Pensacola had gotten lost in the darkness and had come perilously close to Fort St Philip before veering off to the western side of the river. The elderly USS Mississippi was behind it, sidewheels pounding. Off the port bow appeared a low silhouette, shaped like a cigar. It was the infamous ram CSS Manassas, under Lieutenant Alexander Warley, come to do battle. He rammed Mississippi, but only inflicted a glancing hit, which nonetheless managed to tear a gaping hole in the old sidewheeler. The Union ship shuddered and began to list, but then quickly righted itself. Manassas headed off to find another victim.
Back with the Blue division, the screw sloop Brooklyn had become entangled in the broken remnants of the hulk line. Brooklyn finally extricated itself, but only after having taken heavy fire from the forts. Once past Fort St Philip, Brooklyn met another enemy. Manassas had reappeared, firing its single cannon at Brooklyn and then ramming the Union ship. With its gun ruined in the collision, Warley backed up the Manassas for another strike, but his first attack had done less damage than hoped. The chains hung over the side of Brooklyn had protected it, and it steamed onwards, leaving Manassas in its wake.
Aboard Hartford, Farragut struggled to guide his ships past the forts. At around 4.15am, a Confederate tug, Mosher, had nudged a fire raft against
Hartford’s portside hull. Hartford’s guns annihilated the impudent little boat, but the screw sloop was now itself aflame. Fire parties worked furiously to fight the blaze, and the flagship continued to move ahead. Farragut noticed that Confederate fire had begun to lessen. Hartford was, at last, past the forts, but was not altogether safe. Lieutenant Warley in Manassas had found them. The vengeful steam frigate Mississippi, which had also made it past the forts, was looking for a rematch.
Mississippi fired its guns twice at Manassas, which had been so damaged in its earlier battles that it could hardly keep up the fight. Warley grounded his ship on the riverbank, got his crew off, and set his stricken ship alight, even as the pursuing Mississippi continued to rake its hull with lethal grapeshot.
Almost all of Farragut’s ships managed to find a way past the forts, which quit their own firing at about 5.30am. His fleet arrived at the defenceless New Orleans the next day, on 25 April. The forts held out for another two days, under bombardment by the mortar ships, until they too surrendered on 27 April. By 1 May, Butler’s US Army troops had come up and had begun the occupation of the city.