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A Key Port

© Craig E. Hutchison

If the Union forces were going to be successful in defeating the Confederacy, they needed to seize the Mississippi River in order to cut the South into two. In order to achieve this goal, the port of New Orleans had to be captured. New Orleans was the South's largest city and busiest port. To capture the city would be no easy matter.

In June of 1862, twenty-four Union ships sailed up the Mississippi River for the express purpose of seizing the port. The fleet was commanded by David G. Farragut who had been a sailor all of his life. On the way up the river, the ships and sailors had to pass Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip. Between the forts, a barricade was setup that many said was impregnable. After six days of steady bombardment, Fort Jackson was still standing. Farragut decided to try and smash thru the barricade and make a run for New Orleans. In the middle of the night, Federal warships started past the forts. The Confederate guns opened fire and hit the first ship forty-two times. Farragut would remember the event: "the passing of the forts was one of the most awful sites and events I ever saw or expect to experience . . . [it] seemed as if the artillery of heaven were playing upon the earth." Amazingly, within an hour and a half, all but four of the ships made it past the forts.

As the Union boats approached the port of New Orleans, eight Confederate ships sailed out to meet them. Six of these ships were sunk and New Orleans surrendered without firing a shot. The Confederacy was cut in two. Farragut became a hero and America's first rear admiral. Now, the North had control of the southern part of the Mississippi and a base from which to launch expeditions into the Deep South. The whole river was not yet possessed, but this was a huge start. The South's hopes now rested on Vicksburg, four hundred miles to the north.

President Lincoln named Benjamin F. Butler as military governor of New Orleans. He ruled the city with an iron hand and was quoted as saying, "they shall fear the stripes if they do not reverence the stars in our banner." The women of New Orleans repeatedly insulted Butler's troops. The result was that Butler issued General Order 28 which stated that any woman of the city that acted in such a manner would be "regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town, plying her avocation." For this, Butler was given the nickname of "Beast." The result, though, of his order was that the harassment of his troops stopped. Interestingly, a statue of Andrew Jackson on a horse had been erected in New Orleans because of his actions during the War of 1812 to save the city. Butler enraged the citizens of New Orleans by having a slogan carved into the statue: "The Union must and shall be preserved."

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