Thomas O. Selfridge in command, at Charlestown Navy Yard, Mass. The side-wheel steamer was commissioned on 22 December , had served during the Mexican American War, and Matthew C. David G. Farragut in command.
While setting out once more to sea from Key West, Fla. A number of the Union officers suspected the pilot of Southern sympathies because he had run another ship aground a short time before, but Mississippi took on coal and heavy stores, refloated, and two days later rendezvoused with steam frigate Niagara , bark Release , and side wheel steamer Water Witch off Fort Pickens at the entrance to Pensacola, Fla. The young officer patrolled for blockade runners in the Gulf of Mexico, and then took part in the assault on the vital Confederate port of New Orleans, La.
Johnson K. Philip on the eastern bank. Their ships served in three separate forces, however, compounding command and control issues.
Armored ram Manassas , Lt. Warley, CSN, in command, and uncompleted ironclads Louisiana and Mississippi comprised a trio of potentially powerful men-of-war, supplemented by a pair of converted merchantmen, Jackson and McRae. Further vessels included transport Diana, steam tenders Landis and W. Burton , tender Phoenix , and steamers Belle Algerine and Mosher. In addition, the Confederates linked hulks together by a huge chain and stretched them across the river to block Union ships from advancing up the Mississippi, and their efforts collectively posed a formidable challenge to any attacking force.
Farragut led a total of 17 ships mounting guns, supported by a flotilla of 20 mortar boats, Cmdr.
David D. Porter in command. After several attempts, Mississippi , in company with screw steamer Pensacola , Capt. Henry W. Henry H. Bell led a pair of gunboats, Itasca and Pinola , and broke through the boom two days later. The Confederate garrison of Fort Jackson resisted stoutly, however, and Farragut resolved to boldly advance his squadron up river past the forts, counting on darkness and the smoke from gunfire to help obscure his ships.
The flag officer deployed his squadron in three divisions, the First eight ships , Center three , and Third six , led by Capt. Theodorus Bailey, Farragut, and Bell, respectively. Mississippi , Capt. Melancthon Smith in command, was to proceed as the third ship of the First Division.
Farragut broke his flag in screw sloop-of-war Hartford as he led the Union ships up the Mississippi during the mid watch on 24 April , at signaling the three divisions to begin their perilous voyage.
The ships of the three divisions concentrated in two columns and set out about an hour later, but as they approached the breach in the boom, enemy lookouts sighted their silhouettes and sounded the alarm. The Confederates opened a withering fire, and the Union ships blasted their way past with thunderous broadsides, though both sides failed to score many hits in the confusion of the night battle. Some of the Confederate ships then attacked the Union squadron, but they did so piecemeal and a series of ship to ship duels ensued.
Manassas churned toward the invaders and attempted to ram Pensacola but the steamer deftly turned and dodged her blow. The ram continued and in turn fired on and rammed Mississippi and sloop-of-war Brooklyn. Both Union ships survived and shot at the enemy ram, which also took fire from her own shore batteries in the fiery maelstrom. Mississippi then wrecked Manassas with two mighty broadsides, and Warley ordered his men to ground Manassas and set her alight to prevent the Northerners from capturing the ram.
The Confederate sailors ignited their fires and abandoned ship, but Manassas defiantly floated free and drifted downstream past the Union mortar boats. Porter hoped to capture and examine the prize, but she eluded his grasp when she exploded and sank. Charles S. Boggs in command, which sank in the shallows, the only Northern ship lost in the battle. Landis and W. Burton struck their colors, and McRae was damaged but survived, only to sink at her moorings. At that hour the church pennant will be hoisted on every vessel of the fleet, and their crews assembled will, in humiliation and prayer, make their acknowledgments therefor to the great dispenser of all human events.
New Orleans surrendered on 28 April, and on 1 May, Maj. Benjamin F. The capture of New Orleans deprived the Confederates of their largest city and a valuable port, and helped persuade the British and French to minimize their support of the Southerners. The victory also opened the lower Mississippi to further operations, and Farragut spent some days repairing his ships and then deployed them northward in additional attacks that netted Baton Rouge and Natchez.
The fighting for control of the Mississippi basin raged throughout the rest of the year and into During the winter the Union Army of the Tennessee, Maj. Grant in command, invested Vicksburg, Miss. John C. Pemberton, CSA -- the principal remaining Confederate bastion on that strategic river. The Northern operations included a plan to establish a blockade at the mouth of the Red River, from which enemy ships entered the Mississippi. Union ships had to pass Port Hudson, La. The Confederates there, led by Maj. Franklin Gardner, CSA, emplaced strong artillery batteries manned by a combination of soldiers and sailors along the river, making such an attempt a daunting prospect.
Farragut nonetheless needed to pass Port Hudson, and he inspected the squadron of seven ships he selected for the arduous task on 13 March The admiral also conferred with Maj. Nathaniel P. Banks and they arranged for the Army to support the Navy by engaging the enemy batteries from ashore. The Union vessels set out lashed in pairs, the heavier ships steaming to inboard to screen the lighter vessels from the enemy guns, which lay to starboard along the east bank. Hartford and screw steamer Albatross led the column, followed in order by steam sloop Richmond and side wheel steamer Genesee , screw sloop-of-war Monongahela and ironclad gunboat Kineo , and then Mississippi singly, which brought up the rear.
Hartford and Albatross weathered the hail of shot. The Confederate gunners fired furiously, however, and the following ships suffered frightfully. The enemy fire mortally wounded Cmdr. Andrew B. Genesee labored unavailingly against the current and could not tow Richmond through the fray. A 6-inch shot pierced her hull and detonated a inch shell which, in turn, wreaked havoc below; and the murderous fire shredded her rigging. Both ships consequently dropped out of the action and drifted downriver.
At least eight rounds passed entirely through the ship. The bridge was shot from underneath Capt. James P. McKinstry, wounding him and killing three others.
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Kineo helped Monongahela refloat; and she gamely attempted to resume her course upriver. Nathaniel W. Monongahela lost six men killed and 21 wounded, including the captain. Meanwhile, on board Mississippi , Capt. Smith saw Richmond coming downstream but, the heavy smoke of the battle prevented him from sighting Monongahela. In attempting to do so, Mississippi ran aground and, despite every effort by her crewmen, who included Barker and George Dewey, the future victor of the Battle of Manila Bay, could not be brought off.
Smith decided to scuttle Mississippi to prevent the Confederates from seizing the side-wheel steamer.
The ships company scrambled to destroy machinery and spike the guns, and then set her afire in four places. Barker joined the survivors as they abandoned ship, and at they watched the burning ship float slowly down river. Two and one-half hours later, the flames reached the magazines and Mississippi blew up, effectively ending the fierce battle. Pinkerton R. Mississippi lost 64 killed, and the ships in company saved of her crew, including Barker. Farragut continued upstream to Warrenton, Miss. Grant subsequently captured Vicksburg and the Union forces then took Port Hudson, the victories effectively cutting the South in two.
Following that terrifying trial, Barker was transferred to screw sloop-of-war Monogahela , and took part in blockading patrols of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. He then 9 August shifted to steam frigate Niagara , while she was temporarily decommissioned and completed repairs at Boston Navy Yard, Mass. Niagara was recommissioned on 14 October , and in February Barker shifted to screw sloop-of-war Lancaster , flagship of the Pacific Squadron. On 11 November , a secret expedition of boats from Lancaster captured a party of Confederate officers in passenger steamer Salvador, outside the Bay of Panama.
They had planned to seize Salvador for the Confederate Government and convert her into a raider to capture Union gold shipments from California. Barker then cruised in the various stations and served in prominent positions ashore. He relieved Cmdr. Edwin M. Enterprise then put in to: St. The Americans, British, French, and Germans dominated the trade with the sultanate, and the British maintained their two decker London on that station as a store ship.
Enterprise returned to Foochow at a turbulent time because French and Chinese troops had just clashed and stood poised to fight the Sino-French War. Barker therefore landed two parties, one led by Lt. Hugo Osterhaus and 51 bluejackets, and the other commanded by 2nd Lt. The area seethed for some time and the landing parties only returned to the ship on 3 September. Enterprise was decommissioned there and Barker relieved of her command on 21 March, after sailing around the world for three years, and the hydrographic findings on the voyage adding materially to the knowledge of the oceans, their currents, and their bottoms.
On the night of 20 June he took Philadelphia , loaded with 40 tons of coal on the deck and a great store of coal in the firerooms, from Tompkinsville, N. Navy planners debated the steaming radius of the new types of cruisers, and Barker proudly reported that Philadelphia steamed without stopping her engines 4, nautical miles and reached Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on the morning of 11 July.
The ship counted more than tons of coal still remaining at that point, so that she could have continued the voyage without immediately having to carry out the laborious and gritty task of coaling. The Americans arrived at an unsettling time, however, because rival Brazilian factions fought in some parts of the country. The news of an incident of more immediate concern to mariners across the globe also caused consternation among the ships company.

Victoria sank quickly, taking Vice Adm. Camperdown survived the collision, though required extensive repairs. Barker and the officers of the wardroom discussed the accident and debated procedures of the road and maneuvering in formation. Philadelphia charted her further course into the cold southern waters on 17 July , anchoring three times in the Strait of Magellan to avoid running the unlighted strait at nighttime. The ship did not stop at Punta Arenas, but plowed through heavy seas as she followed the west coast of South America and reached Callao, Peru, on 7 August.