USS Richmond (1860) - Capture of New Orleans

Capture of New Orleans

Richmond departed New York on 13 February 1862. Richmond joined the West Gulf Blockading Squadron off Ship Island on 5 March as Flag Officer David Farragut prepared to seize New Orleans, Louisiana. Richmond crossed the bar on 24 March with the fleet and began making preparations for battle.

On 16 April, Farragut's fleet moved to a position below Forts Jackson and St. Philip. Mounting over 100 guns, these forts were the principal shore defenses of New Orleans. The Confederates had also gathered a flotilla of requisitioned gunboats and were trying to complete the powerful casemate ram Louisiana as well. They further counted on using fire ships to disrupt the large Union squadron.

Hidden by intervening woods, the Union mortar flotilla under Commander David D. Porter began a 6-day bombardment of the Confederate forts on 18 April 1862. The Confederates began sending fire rafts downstream, and Richmond reported dodging one in the early morning of 21 April which "passed between us and the Hartford, the great flames shooting as high as the masts." On 24 April Farragut's fleet ran past the forts, engaged and defeated the Confederate flotilla, and continued upriver for about 12 miles. Though Richmond was hit 17 times above the waterline, her chain armor kept out many rounds and limited her casualties to two killed and three wounded. Richmond landed her Marine detachment at New Orleans to help keep order until General Benjamin Franklin Butler's Army troops arrived.

Richmond helped take possession of military installations at Baton Rouge, Louisiana on 10 May 1862. Four days later she cruised upriver, first to a point 12 miles below the juncture of the Red River, thence off Natchez River and finally to a position below the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg on 18 June 1862.