New Orleans, Capture of
NEW ORLEANS, CAPTURE OF
NEW ORLEANS, CAPTURE OF. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Union authorities recognized the strategic importance of seizing New Orleans, the commercial emporium of the entire Mississippi Valley and the second port of the United States. In the spring of 1862 a naval squadron under Union Adm. David G. Farragut, carrying an army commanded by Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, entered the lower Mississippi and succeeded in passing two Confederate forts in the night. Farragut's fleet followed shortly thereafter. Realizing that resistance was useless, the city's small Confederate garrison withdrew northward, leaving New Orleans to fall into the hands of Union forces on 1 May 1862.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Capers, Gerald M. Occupied City: New Orleans under the Federals, 1862–1865. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1965.
Hearn, Chester G. When the Devil Came down to Dixie: Ben Butler in New Orleans. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997.
WalterPrichard/a. g.
See also"Damn the Torpedoes" ; Gunboats ; Mortars, Civil War Naval ; Rams, Confederate ; River Navigation ; Warships .