Assaulting Mobile, Alabama
While Farragut led his steamers on a reconnaissance expedition up the Mississippi River, Porter took his schooners to Ship Island to prepare for an attack on Mobile, Alabama. There, Matthew Vassar and USS Sea Foam, 15 May, captured Confederate blockade running sloops Sarah and New Eagle trying to slip to sea, laden with cotton. After learning that Confederate batteries had been sited high on the hillside safe from his low projectory guns, Farragut ordered up the mortar boats to attack the river stronghold. Porter took his schooners to a point just below Vicksburg, Mississippi, where they shelled the Confederate batteries while Farragut’s fleet steamed upstream past Vicksburg, 28 June, and joined Flag Officer Davis’s flotilla. However, sufficient troops were not available to reduce the Confederate fortress; so Farragut, again supported by covering fire from the mortars, dashed downstream by Vicksburg and retired to New Orleans.
Read more about this topic: USS Matthew Vassar (1861)
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