plan in operation; though all the naval and
military means concerned made such a plan impossible of execution in
1862. Amphibious forces--fleets and armies combined--were essential.
There was no use in parading up and down the river, however
triumphantly, so long as the force employed could only hold the part
of the channel within actual range of its guns. The Confederates
could be driven off the Mississippi at any given point. But there
was nothing to prevent them from coming back again when once the
ships had passed. An army to seize and hold strategic points ashore
was absolutely indispensable. Then, and only then, Farragut's long
line of communication with his base at New Orleans would be safe,
and the land in which the Mississippi was the principal highway
could itself be conquered.

"If the Mississippi expedition from Cairo shall not have descended
the river, you will take advantage of the panic to push a strong
force up the river to take all their defenses in rear." These were
the orders Farragut had to obey if he succeeded in taking New Orleans.
They were soon reinforced by this reminder: "The only anxiety we feel
is to know if you have followed up your instructions and pushed a
strong force up the river to meet the Western flotilla." Farragut
therefore felt bound to obey and do all that could be done to carry
on a quite impossible campaign. So, with a useless landing party
of only fifteen hundred troops, he pushed up to Vicksburg, four
hundred miles above New Orleans. The nearest Federal army had been
halted by the Confederate defenses above Memphis, another four
hundred higher still.

There were several reasons why Farragut should not have gone up.
His big ships would certainly be stranded if he went up and waited
for the army to come down; moreover, when stranded, these ships
would be captured while waiting, because both banks were swarming
with vastly outnumbering Confederate troops. Then, such a disaster
would more than offset the triumph of New Orleans by still further
depressing Federal morale at a time when the Federal arms were
doing none too well near Washington. Finally, all the force that
was being worse than wasted up the Mississippi might have been
turned against Mobile, which, at that time, was much weaker than
the defenses Farragut had already overcome. But the people of the
North were clamorous for more victories along the line to which
the press had drawn their gaze. So the Government ordere