BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS
FORTS JACKSON AND ST PHILIP, NEAR NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 18-24 APRIL 1862
“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”
Stretching some 3,734 kilometres (2,320 miles) north to south, both sides of the American Civil War recognised the Mississippi’s strategic importance. If the North could gain control of the river, it would sever the rebellious western states of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas from the their eastern brethren. Accomplishing this goal was no easy thing: Union naval forces on the river at the outbreak of the war were next to nothing. Further, the entire length of the river would have to be taken in order to open it to the Union, deny passage to the Confederates and enforce an effective blockade. The war for the Mississippi river would be one of not just riverine naval forces but also of fortifications and gun batteries situated on its banks.
A Union river naval force needed to be either built from scratch or converted from existing ships. 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. The area was cut by so many waterways that guarding it was next to impossible, and so any blockade of it was bound to be porous – it was a matter of geography. At New Orleans, the river split into four separate channels, spreading out some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from one side to the other once it reached Gulf waters. It was also well-protected. Some 24 kilometres (15 miles) up from the Gulf entrance the channels converged to form a junction called the Head of Passes. Here, the rebels had their main defensive fortifications: Fort Jackson, on the western bank, and Fort