Farragut Turns the Mississippi River Over to Porter

JULY 9, 1863

Admiral Farragut, off  Donaldsonville, Louisiana, writes Porter, "The Department, I presume, anticipated the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson by the time their dispatch would reach me, in which they tell me that 'I will now be able to turn over the Mississippi River to you and give my more particular attention to the blockade on the different points on the coast....'"  Meaning, Mobile, Alabama.

Just because the Union controlled the major defensive points along the Mississippi River did not, however, mean that the Father of Waters was under their total control.

Farragut requested that Porter send down a couple ironclads to Donaldsonville to deal with "some 10,000 Texans, who have 15 or 20 pieces of light artillery, and have embrasures in the leveee and annoy our vessels very much."

Those Pesky 'Sech.  --Old Secesh