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[85] profusion; but these were not the forces required to paralyze such commanders as Butler and Farragut. At length,1 the joyful tidings reached the former from the latter that his fleet was all over the bar, reloaded, and ready for action; and that he hoped to move up the river next day. Two days later, Gen. Butler, with his 8,000 troops, was at the mouth of the river.

New Orleans, situated on the left bank of the Mississippi, 100 miles above its mouths, with the large sheet of water known as Lake Pontchartrain closely approaching it on the north, and the smaller Lake Borgne some 20 miles distant on the east, was by far the largest and most important city of the Confederacy, with a population of 170,000, and the greatest export trade, just prior to the war of any city in the world. Unable to perceive the wisdom of expatriating those magnificent feeders of its commerce, the Missouri, the Ohio, and the upper Mississippi, a majority of its people had opposed Secession, until the carefully nursed tempest of pro-Slavery folly, fury, fanaticism, and ruffianism, stifled all outspoken dissent, about the time the war was formally opened by the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. Thenceforward, New Orleans became the virtual heart of the Confederacy; and its immense wealth of coin and produce was lavished in all directions in support of the military operations directed from Richmond. Regiment after regiment of Louisianians and foreign residents were raised and equipped here; but most of them had, when the hour of peril came, been drafted off, from time to time, to meet pressing exigencies on the Potomac and higher Mississippi, or the Tennessee; so that but about 3,000 of these, neither well armed, well drilled, nor particularly well affected to the cause, remained to dispute the advance of the Yankee invaders.

Gen. David E. Twiggs had been rewarded for his stupendous treachery to the Union in Texas, by the command of the Confederate defenses of New Orleans, until stern experience proved him as incalable, superannuated, and inefficient, as even our own Scott. At length, on a plea of declining health, lie was sent home to die; and Gen. Mansfield Lovell, who had abandoned a lucrative office under the Democratic municipality of New York to take service with tlhe Confederates, was appointed his successor.

On assuming command,2 Lovell found the defenses of the great slavemart more pretentious than formidable. The variety of water approaches )by Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne, and the Bayous Barataria and La Fourche, all needed defenses against an enemy of preponderant naval force; while even the Mississippi required fortifying and watching above as well as below, to render the city entirely safe. Artillery by parks was indispensable; and a good many guns had been supplied from the plunder of the Norfolk Navy Yard, and elsewhere; but most of them were old, of moderate caliber, unrifled, and every way unsuited to the requirements of modern warfare. He telegraphed to Richmond, to Mobile, and other points, for heavier and better cannon; but obtained very

1 April 15, 1862.

2 Oct. 18, 1861.

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