... Ship Island on the Gulf, were strongly garrisoned, and threatened constantly with attack by the enemy. Forts Jackson and St. Philip, and English Bend, on the lower river; New Orleans, Bonne Carre, Donaldsonville , Plaquemine, and Baton Rouge, on the upper river; and Forts Pike and Macomb on Lake Ponchartrain leading to the Gulf, and Berwick's Bay, were open to the incursions of the enemy, and necessarily stro...