9, Farragut was
appointed to the command of the western Gulf blockading squadron, and
eleven days thereafter received his confidential instructions to attempt
the capture of the city of New Orleans.

Thus far in the war, Farragut had been assigned to no prominent service,
but the patience with which he had awaited his opportunity was now more
than compensated by the energy and thoroughness with which he
superintended the organization of his fleet. By the middle of April he
was in the lower Mississippi with seventeen men-of-war and one hundred
and seventy-seven guns. With him were Commander David D. Porter, in
charge of a mortar flotilla of nineteen schooners and six armed
steamships, and General Benjamin F. Butler, at the head of an army
contingent of six thousand men, soon to be followed by considerable
reinforcements.

The first obstacle to be overcome was the fire from the twin forts
Jackson and St. Philip, situated nearly opposite each other at a bend of
the Mississippi twenty-five miles above the mouth of the river, while
the city of New Orleans itself lies seventy-five miles farther up the
stream. These were formidable forts of masonry, with an armament
together of over a hundred guns, and garrisons of about six hundred men
each. They also had auxiliary defenses: first, of a strong river
barrier of log rafts and other obstructions connected by powerful
chains, half a mile below the forts; second, of an improvised fleet of
sixteen rebel gunboats and a formidable floating battery. None of
Farragut's ships were ironclad. He had, from the beginning of the
undertaking, maintained the theory that a wooden fleet, properly
handled, could successfully pass the batteries of the forts. "I would as
soon have a paper ship as an ironclad; only give me _men_ to fight her!"
he said. He might not come back; but New Orleans would be won. In his
hazardous undertaking his faith was based largely on the skill and
courage of his subordinate commanders of ships, and this faith was fully
sustained by their gallantry and devotion.

Porter's flotilla of nineteen schooners carrying two mortars each,
anchored below the forts, maintained a heavy bombardment for five days,
and then Farragut decided to try his ships. On the night of the
twentieth the daring work of two gunboats cut an opening through the
river barrier through which the vessels might pass; and at two o'clock
on the morning of April 24, Farragut gave the signal to advance. Th