Fort Jackson on the Mississippi, Louisiana

On the Trail

http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/la001.htm

FORT JACKSON

Fort Jackson and its sister fort, Fort St. Philip were of particular interest to me as a Civil War historian.  My great- grandfather Sam wrote a letter home indicating that he could hear the mortar fires from David Porter’s fleet of mortar ships.  He was at Ship Island, off the coast of Mississippi.  (This is the answer to the question asked in the prologue—Fort  Massachusetts is located on Ship Island, Mississippi).

Fort St. Philip, located just upstream from Fort Jackson on the east bank, was built in 1795 by the Spanish. Its cannons prevented the British from reaching New Orleans in 1815 in the Battle of New Orleans.

 

Fort St. Philip, on the east side of the river can only be reached by boat.  No roads.  It is privately owned.  The owner has no plans for rennovation/restoration.


Both forts were badly hit by water surge from Katrina.  They are two of the top ten endangered battlefield listing for the United States, as of January 2008.  I do not know if its status has changed. The list was complied by the Civil War Preservation Trust, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C.

Fort Jackson, on the other hand is on the West side of the Mighty Mississippi which was exceedingly high when we visited.  The Fort was extremely easy the access and get to…right off the main highway Route 23. The Fort is owned by Plaquemines Parish, officially in the town of Buras, but the locals are hoping that it will become part of NPS in the future.  We drove from New Orleans on a Saturday morning to find that it was locked tight.  However, we did walk around it.  Several other cars pulled in, including a local family. She mentioned that she was going to bring up at the next council meeting that it should be open on weekends.  It was, however, Easter weekend, so maybe that was the reason that it was closed.  The other reason it may have been closed was that they were preparing for a reenactment later in April.  I gathered that she had some influence as her maiden name was that of the next town north of the fort.  The family, particularly the Mom, shared lots of local information including the fact that part of the land for the fort was the football field for nearby schools.  My disappointment in not being able to see the interior was more than balanced by this woman’s ongoing conversation.

The road continues to the bottom of the delta…the end of the world, as the locals say...in the town of Venice.  We thought we would follow it to its end for two reasons:  we used to live in Venice, FL and it is the end of the world...dropping off into the Gult. But we could not as major portions of the road were under water due to the overflowing river.  It was still a good experience, however.

We did spend quite some time at the fort, watching the boat/ship traffic on the river.

The importance of these forts was the protection of New Orleans. Control of New Orleans was control of a huge trading locale and a very big economy.  And it would take one more port away from Rebel control. No one believed that any enemy could possibly get past these two fortifications.  New Orleans had no other protection, but then no one believed they needed it.  No one told US Flag Officer David Farragut, however, with his twenty-four ships or US Commander David Porter, who commanded the fleet of nineteen mortar boats that it was impossible to capture New Orleans by by-passing the two forts.

The capture of New Orleans was supposed to be a combined land/sea effort with General Benjamin Butler in command of the land operation.  For all intents and purposes, however, the battle was completed almost entirely by water. 

Command of the Confederates over these two forts were Brig. Gen. Johnson K. Duncan and Cdr. John K. Mitchell [CS]

The battle took place April 16-28, 1862.  My great grandfather, Sam, was part of the Thirteenth Connecticut.  They were the last regiment to land on Ship Island before the battle started.  Therefore, they were not to be part of the land forces.  So while camped on that island, the gun mortars of Porter’s echoed down the river.

Estimated casualties were 1,011 total (US 229; CS 782).  Since this was still near the beginning of the War and seemingly long before so much blood was later shed, many thought this was a high number.  Unfortunately, both sides would soon learn that these numbers would be barely notable.

The forts were near and just above the various ship passages from the Gulf.  The forts were approximately seventy miles south of New Orleans.  Dividing the Confederacy was paramount in the hopes of winning the war.

Plans were put in place as early as January using the West Gulf Blockading Squadron.

Porter’s mortars started shelling the forts on April 16 and continued for one solid week.

The Confederacy had plans of their own.  The crossfire of the armaments was supposed to stop any ship traffic.  They also had a fleet of their own, including two ironclads.  In addition, all kinds of obstructions and chains were placed into and across the river.  The Fort did not give up despite the constant bombardment. 


But on April 22, some of Farragut’s ships broke through.  By the 24^th all of his ships were north of the forts.  Farragut sailed north and eventually accepted the surrender of this very important city.  A Union victory.  The forts were surrounded and surrendered on April 28.  New Orleans was garrisoned with Union soldiers, including my g-g Sam.

more pics later