Following the fall of Fort Sumter, the Lincoln administration adopted General Winfield Scott’s strategy to win the war. Dubbed the Anaconda Plan, it called for a Union blockade of the southern coast and for Union forces to seize New Orleans and push down the Mississippi River, capturing enemy strongpoints and opening the river. To accomplish this mission, the Union navy had to acquire, arm, and man vessels suitable for service on western rivers. The timberclads Tyler, Lexington, and Conestoga, joined by city-class ironclads, rams, mortar boats, and tinclads, enabled Andrew Hull Foote’s Western ... More

Following the fall of Fort Sumter, the Lincoln administration adopted General Winfield Scott’s strategy to win the war. Dubbed the Anaconda Plan, it called for a Union blockade of the southern coast and for Union forces to seize New Orleans and push down the Mississippi River, capturing enemy strongpoints and opening the river. To accomplish this mission, the Union navy had to acquire, arm, and man vessels suitable for service on western rivers. The timberclads Tyler, Lexington, and Conestoga, joined by city-class ironclads, rams, mortar boats, and tinclads, enabled Andrew Hull Foote’s Western Gunboat Flotilla to support Union advances down the Mississippi River. Joint Union forces won the battle of Belmont in November 1861, took Forts Henry and Donelson, and engaged rebel naval forces at Plum Point and Memphis. Admiral David Farragut’s squadron ran past Forts Jackson and St. Philip, forcing New Orleans to surrender in April 1862; took Baton Rouge and Natchez; and joined Foote’s flotilla near Vicksburg. David Dixon Porter replaced Foote as commander of the renamed Mississippi Squadron, but he and Sherman were unable to secure the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg in December. Although several gunboats were lost to rebel mines or gunfire, the “brown-water navy” proved remarkably durable in battles with Confederate vessels such as the CSS Arkansas, gun batteries at Port Hudson and Grand Gulf, and guerrillas. Porter and Farragut’s squadrons provided floating artillery for General Ulysses S. Grant’s campaigns which finally took Vicksburg and won control of the Mississippi River in July 1863.