APRIL 16TH
After careful preparations and planning, Flag Officer Farragut moves his fleet upthe Mississippi River to take position below the the Confederate forts. High water had caused flooding at the forts, mounting some 100 guns. A chain obstruction supported by hulks spanned the river.
Besides the forts and obstructions, Confederate defenses consisted of the uncompleted ironclad Louisiana, the ram Manassas, several small, makeshift gunboats and fire rafts. Farragut, in his flagships, the USS Hartford, had 17 ships mounting 154 guns and 20 mortar boats.
APRIL 18TH
** The Confederate Congress, growing tired of Union successes on the water authorized contracts for the purchase of not more than six ironclads to be paid for with cotton.
** Union mortar boats under Commander David D. Porter, began a five-day bombardment of Fort Jackson from 3,000 yards away. They concentrated their shells, weighing as much as 285 pounds, on Fort Jackson, which was the nearest of the two forts that they could get too under cover of woods on shore. The garrison heroically stuck to their guns.
APRIL 19TH
Mortar schooner USS Maria J. Carlson, bombarding Fort Jackson, was sunk by Confederate fire. Commander Bell observed that the Confederate guns were being worked "beautifully and with effect."
Old B-Runner
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