losses.]

"Your services at Red River," wrote Admiral Porter to Farragut upon
hearing of his arrival above Port Hudson, "will be a godsend; it is
worth to us the loss of the "Mississippi," and is at this moment the
severest blow that could be struck at the South. They obtain all their
supplies and ammunition in that way.... The great object is to cut off
supplies. For that reason I sent down the Queen of the West and the
Indianola. I regret that the loss of the Indianola should have been the
cause of your present position." These utterances, which bespeak the
relief afforded him at the moment by Farragut's bold achievement, are
confirmed by the words written many years later in his History of the
Navy. "Farragut in the Hartford, with the Albatross, reached the mouth
of the Red River, and Port Hudson was as completely cut off from
supplies as if fifty gunboats were there.... It was soon seen that the
object aimed at had been gained--the works at Port Hudson were cut off
from supplies and the fate of the garrison sealed." "I look upon it as
of vast importance," wrote General Grant, "that we should hold the river
securely between Vicksburg and Port Hudson"; and he undertook to
contribute anything that the army could furnish to enable vessels from
above to run by Vicksburg, and so supply to Farragut the numbers he
needed through the repulse of his own ships.

"The Mississippi is again cut off," wrote to Richmond the Confederate
General Pemberton, who commanded the district in which are Vicksburg and
Port Hudson, "neither subsistence nor ordnance can come or go"; and the
following day, March 20th, the sixth after Farragut's passage, he sends
word to General Richard Taylor, on the west shore, "Port Hudson depends
almost entirely for supplies upon the other side of the river." "Great
God! how unfortunate!" writes, on March 17th, a Confederate commissary
in Taylor's department. "Four steamers arrived to-day from Shreveport.
One had 300,000 pounds of bacon; three others are reported coming down
with loads. Five others are below with full cargoes designed for Port
Hudson, but it is reported that the Federal gunboats are blockading the
river." As to passing by other points, "it is doubtful whether many
cattle ever get through the swamps and bayous through which they are
required to pass on this side. As the water declines, I think likely
cattle in large quantities can be crossed by swimming, but _at present
your prospect of gett