Porter was sent down to help blockade the Mississippi in the summer of 1861, and while there he found out all about the forts and the ships on the river. Then he went to Washington and told the Secretary of the Navy all he had learned, and asked him to send down a fleet to try to capture the city.
"Where can I find the right man for a big job like that?" asked the Secretary.
"Captain Farragut is your man," said Porter. "You have him now on committee work, where a man like him is just wasted, for you have not half as good a seaman on any of your ships."
And in that way the gallant Farragut was chosen to command the fleet to be sent to capture the great city of the South. Porter, you see, did not ask for a command for himself, but for his friend.
When the fleet was got ready it numbered nearly twenty vessels, but most of them were gunboats, and none of them were very large. The Mississippi was not the place for very large ships. Farragut chose the sloop-of-war Hartford for his flagship and sailed merrily away for the mighty river. He did not forget his friend Porter. For twenty mortar boats were added to the fleet, and Porter was given command of these.
A mortar, you should know, is a kind of a short cannon made to throw large shells or balls. It is pointed upward so as to throw them high up into the air and then let them fall straight down on a fort. Porter's mortar boats were schooners that carried cannons of this kind.
When Farragut had sailed his fleet into the river, he made ready for the great fight before him. Of course, he had no iron-clads, for the Monitor had just fought its great battle and no other iron-clads had been built. So he stretched iron chains up and down the sides of his ships to stop cannon balls. Then bags of coal and sand were piled round the boilers and engines to keep them safe, and nets were hung to catch flying splinters, which, in a fight at sea, are often worse than bullets.
But the most interesting thing done was to the mortar boats. These were to be anchored down the stream below the forts, and limbs of trees full of green leaves were tied on their masts, so they could not be told from the trees on the river-bank. As they went up the river they looked like a green grove afloat.
Now let us take a look at what the Confederates were doing. They were not asleep, you may be sure. They had built two strong forts, one on each side of the river, just where it made a sharp bend. One of these was named Fort Jackson and the other Fort St. Philip. There were more than a hundred cannon in these forts, but most of them were small ones.
They had also stretched iron cables across the river, with rafts and small vessels to hold them up. These were to stop the fleet from going up the river, and to hold it fast while the forts could pour shot and shell into it. They had also many steamboats with cannon on them. One of these, the Louisiana, was covered with iron. Another was a ram, called the Manassas. This had a sharp iron beak, to ram and sink other vessels. And there were great coal barges, filled with fat pine knots. These were meant for fire-ships. You will learn farther on how these were to be used.