Capture Of New Orleans Essay

The Capture of New Orleans was a Civil War battle that took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, lasting half a month from April 16th to May 1st, 1862. The Union’s objective was to capture New Orleans via the Anaconda Plan, which was a war strategy created by the Union General-in-Chief, Winfield Scott, and endorsed by President Lincoln and General McClellan. The Confederates heavily relied on the trading of materials for the war between states, and used the Mississippi River as an essential component of their shipment and transportation system. The Anaconda Plan strategy was to cut off Confederate access to the Mississippi River. This would prevent the Confederates from shipping supplies and goods between the eastern and western states, essentially

Farragut, who commanded 24 gunboats and 19 mortar boats. On the opposite side of the battle, the Confederate leader Major General Mansfield Lovell was in charge of two ironclads and ten gunboats. The Confederate forts were also equipped with 74 guns at Fort Jackson and 52 guns at Fort St. Philip. Although the Union had more strategically organized ships, the Confederacy had an advantage of having two established forts near the battle site, which would aid the Confederate soldiers at the river banks. The resulting casualties on the Union side were 37 killed and 149 wounded, which was miniscule compared to the losses suffered by the Confederates. The casualties suffered by the Confederates were 782 killed and roughly 6,000 soldiers captured. This easily places the Capture of New Orleans as one of the least bloody battles during the Civil War, especially when placed in comparison to the battle of Gettysburg, in which the Union suffered 23,049 casualties and the Confederacy suffered

Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Blockade Against Southern Ports, which primarily stated that the Union would attempt to take charge of eastern and southern Confederate ports and repurpose them into military bases. This was carried out by the Blockade Strategy Board, which divided the tasks for the plan into two distinct jobs or divisions. First was the Blockade Service, which was the job that the majority of Americans took on, because it was financially beneficial to those who participated in it. This position consisted of not fighting in the war, but rather aiding those who did, by performing simple tasks such as cooking and cleaning for the military bases. The second position was the Blockade Runners, which were the ships that would carry the soldiers into battles. Those who would acquire jobs on board these ships would also be rewarded financially. Additionally, the ships which were in charge of upholding the blockade were split up into squadrons, which varied depending on the location and task of the ship. The Atlantic Blockading Squadron and the Gulf Blockading Squadron were the original divisions, but were later divided further into the North Atlantic and South Atlantic Squadrons and the East Gulf and West Gulf Blockading Squadrons. The Atlantic Squadrons were placed along the east coast of the continent, and the Gulf Squadrons were placed