Gulf of Mexico Operations
Assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, Estrella served throughout the war off Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana, along the Texas coast, and up the rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.
During the first 13 days of November 1862 she took part in a series of engagements with CSS J. A. Cotton and Confederate shore batteries along the Atchafalaya River and Bayou Teche. With her captain serving as commander of the flotilla maintained in Berwick Bay, Estrella led the attack on CSS Queen of the West 14 April 1863. The Confederate ship was set afire by Union gunfire and after 90 of her crew had been rescued, exploded.
Four days later, Cooke led his flotilla up the Atchafalaya once more, to attack the batteries at Butte-a-la-Rose, Louisiana. The batteries were captured intact, with their garrison of 60 men and large supplies of ammunition and commissary stores. A Union Army garrison was at once sent up to hold the town, another key point won by the Union Navy in its continuing campaign to take complete control of coastal areas.
Read more about this topic: USS Estrella (1862), Civil War Service
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—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)