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first division of his fleet, eight vessels, led by Captain Bailey,
successfully passed the barrier. The second division of nine ships was
not quite so fortunate. Three of them failed to pass the barrier, but
the others, led by Farragut himself in his flag-ship, the _Hartford_,
followed the advance.

The starlit night was quickly obscured by the smoke of the general
cannonade from both ships and forts; but the heavy batteries of the
latter had little effect on the passing fleet. Farragut's flag-ship was
for a short while in great danger. At a moment when she slightly
grounded a huge fire-raft, fully ablaze, was pushed against her by a
rebel tug, and the flames caught in the paint on her side, and mounted
into her rigging. But this danger had also been provided against, and by
heroic efforts the _Hartford_ freed herself from her peril. Immediately
above the forts, the fleet of rebel gunboats joined in the battle, which
now resolved itself into a series of conflicts between single vessels or
small groups. But the stronger and better-armed Union ships quickly
destroyed the Confederate flotilla, with the single exception that two
of the enemy's gunboats rammed the _Varuna_ from opposite sides and sank
her. Aside from this, the Union fleet sustained much miscellaneous
damage, but no serious injury in the furious battle of an hour and a
half.

With but a short halt at Quarantine, six miles above the forts, Farragut
and his thirteen ships of war pushed on rapidly over the seventy-five
miles, and on the forenoon of April 25 New Orleans lay helpless under
the guns of the Union fleet. The city was promptly evacuated by the
Confederate General Lovell. Meanwhile, General Butler was busy moving
his transports and troops around outside by sea to Quarantine; and,
having occupied that point in force, Forts Jackson and St. Philip
capitulated on April 28. This last obstruction removed, Butler, after
having garrisoned the forts, brought the bulk of his army up to New
Orleans, and on May 1 Farragut turned over to him the formal possession
of the city, where Butler continued in command of the Department of the
Gulf until the following December.

Farragut immediately despatched an advance section of his fleet up the
Mississippi. None of the important cities on its banks below Vicksburg
had yet been fortified, and, without serious opposition, they
surrendered as the Union ships successively reached them. Farragut
himself, following with