...ts lashed to her sides, were incapable of stemming the current in the river, and her utility became that simply of a battery located on the river front. When Farragut had passed Forts Jackson and St. Philip , his fleet of twenty-four vessels of war, mounting 227 guns, engaged the Confederate fleet of four river steamers, the so-called ironclad Manassas, and the Louisiana moored to the river bank; in all ...