Just a month after the fall of Fort Sumter, the federal warship USS Brooklyn appeared at the mouth of the Mississippi River and sent word to General Johnson K. Duncan, the commander of Fort Jackson, that the federal blockade of the river was in effect.
This began a long, difficult year in New Orleans, marked by shortages and occasional naval skirmishes at the river's mouth. It all came to a head in April 1862 when Union commander David Farragut moved on Fort Jackson with 17 wooden vessels and 24 mortar boats.
Also there were 6,000 men under General Butler's command, waiting on transport ships to take over New Orleans.
The Confederate forces had 69 guns at Fort Jackson and another 45 at Fort St. Philip. They also had 10 wooden ships and two ironclads, although one, the CSS Louisiana, was unfinished and therefore used as a floating battery.
They hoped to further impede Farragut by blocking the river with a string of vessels, connected by a chain, stretching between the two forts.
--Old B-Runner
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