FREDERICKSBURG'S significance during the Civil War is tied to its proximity to the Rappahannock River. The west-to-east-flowing river, situated halfway between the opposing capitals, was a natural barrier across the path of any Federal force seeking the most direct route from Washington to Richmond.
Conversely, the mighty Mississippi River--flowing north to south--was an inviting avenue of advance for Federal forces to pierce into the heart of the Confederacy. Many sections of the river fell into Federal hands early in the war--one of the earliest was the stretch around New Orleans.
Lt. Col. Al Stratton, a member of the Rappahannock Valley Civil War Round Table who lived in New Orleans for three years, shared his interest in the battle for New Orleans with the organization at a recent meeting.
Not only was New Orleans an important landmark in the conquest of the Mississippi, but it was a key Southern city. With about 168,000 people, New Orleans boasted the largest population in the south, and was the fifth-largest city in the United States before the outbreak of the Civil War.
Next to New Orleans, Charleston and Richmond were the most populous cities in the Confederacy, yet each had less than a quarter the population of the Crescent City. It boasted significant industrial capacity, containing more machine shops and ship factories than Norfolk or Pensacola, although those ports hosted navy yards. The city was a focal point of the South in social, economic and strategic factors, but despite its importance, the Confederacy was ill-prepared to defend it.
Stratton noted that Confederate President Jefferson Davis gave more attention to the Federal army marching on Richmond during the spring of 1862 than to New Orleans. Davis also thought that the Federal threat along the Mississippi River would originate from the heartland moving south, rather than from the Gulf of Mexico moving north.
Federal military efforts against New Orleans would begin where Davis least expected it. The most prominent defense of New Orleans to the south consisted of two forts on opposite banks of the Mississippi about 75 miles below the city. Fort St. Philip and the stronger Fort Jackson trained their cannon on a portion of the river that had a colossal chain stretched across it, designed to hold up attacking ships at a point where the forts' artillery fire would be most deadly.
Confederates reasoned that the forts would halt a Federal naval advance, and that the swamps would force any overland advance by the Federal army to confront the Chalmette fortifications--re-dug along the same location where Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the War of 1812--about four miles from New Orleans. These defenses were put to the test April 18-25, 1862.
Since New Orleans proper was without any river defenses, Federal plans were to run past Forts St. Philip and Jackson and then attack the defenseless city, compelling it to surrender. The Federals did not need to take the two forts--just bypass them without suffering incapacitating damage and losses in the process. Federal navy Cmdr. David Porter assembled a flotilla of about 20 mortar boats and planned to lob shells into the two forts for two days. Then a fleet of 17 ships commanded by Porter's foster brother, Capt. David Farragut, would run past the weakened or reduced forts. Gen. Benjamin Butler, commanding an army of 15,000 troops, was to maneuver against the rear of the forts.
The plan got under way on April 18, with the mortar flotilla bombarding the forts. After two days of shelling, the forts were still operational, and after three additional days the fatigued gunners grew considerably less effective in hitting their targets. The wooden fleet would have to run the gantlet between the two masonry forts. After the third day of mortar fire, and under the cover of darkness, two Federal gunboats were able to move up to the chain and dismantle that obstacle prior to the attempt to pass the forts.
The fleet was divided into three divisions--one to fire on Fort St. Philip, another to strike Fort Jackson and the third to act as a reserve assisting whichever group of ships needed support. Farragut, aboard his flagship the Hartford, went up against Fort Jackson.
In the pre-dawn hours of April 24, the Federal fleet advanced. The first ships passed by the former location of the chain barrier undetected, but Confederate sentinels closer to the forts sent the alert, and the forts soon opened artillery fire. Besides the cannon, the Confederates also intended to set Federal wooden ships on fire by shoving against them 100-foot-long barges loaded with wood piled 20 feet high, soaked in tar and ignited.
Farragut's Hartford was a victim of one such fire barge. For a moment, Farragut thought all was lost, but he quickly regained his composure and teased his signal officer, B.S. Osbon, who was kneeling on the deck, that "This is not time for prayer." Osbon was unscrewing caps from some shells, and rolled them onto the blazing barge. The explosion blew a hole in the barge, causing it to sink, saving the Hartford in the process.
By dawn, 14 of the 17 ships in the fleet had safely passed the forts, and the other three retreated to safety rather than risk combating the forts in broad daylight.
North of the forts, Farragut encountered the Southern gunboats. Included in the Confederate flotilla was the Louisiana, an ironclad gunboat still nearing completion. Its engines had been installed, but were not yet functional. Though unable to maneuver, the Louisiana was towed into position upstream from the forts for use as a floating battery of cannon. Stratton noted that the Confederate ships belonged to three different commands, which were not placed under one overall commander.
With the Confederate naval forces and army operating independently and not coordinating their efforts, Stratton felt that "unity of command" was a decisive factor in the battle for New Orleans. Although the Confederates sank one Federal ship, their naval forces were defeated, and Farragut steamed toward New Orleans.
The Chalmette line offered only token resistance, and by the afternoon of April 25, Farragut was at New Orleans. The South's premier city had fallen into Federal hands.
GREG MERTZ, a historian living in Spotsylvania County, is the founding president of the Rappahannock Valley Civil War Round Table.