CSS Mississippi-- Part 6: The Union Threats on the Mississippi in March 1862

All these delays added up to the Mississippi not being ready to fight the Union ships when the time came.  Nelson Tift later said that  his ship would have been completed  in another two to three weeks.  (However, Captain Sinclair said his estimation was more like ten weeks away.)

In mid-March 1862, Flag Officer Farragut's ships entered the lower Mississippi River with the obvious eventual  intention of attacking New Orleans.  Farragut was already under  pressure from U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles  who was very fearful of the  two ironclad "monsters" being completed at New Orleans.  ("Monsters" was a widespread term used for the Louisiana and the Mississippi at the time.)

On the other hand, the Confederate government was more concerned  with the threat of the Union gunboat flotilla approaching Memphis from the north along the Mississippi River.  Even as Farragut was moving his ships  across the bar, President Davis and Secretary of the Navy Mallory were promising Flag Officer George N. Hollins, commanding the Confederate naval forces on the Mississippi River, that the Louisiana would be sent to Memphis as soon as she was finished (expected to be a few days.)

The CSS Mississippi would follow shortly thereafter.

--Old B-Runner