The first boom was badly damaged by a storm. Repaired, it was damaged by driftwood. Several days before Farragut's fleet launched his attack, an improvised boom, constructed of 11 hulks of schooners secured together by large chains, was completed.

The improvised Naval forces at the Forts consisted of 10 wooden ships and 2 ironclads. Commander T. K. Mitchell commanded the ships of the Confederate Navy and State of Louisiana which included the "McRae", "Stonewall Jackson", "Governor Moore", "General Quitman", and the two ironclads, the unfinished "Louisiana" and the "Manassas". The 6 ships of the river defense fleet were under the command of Captain John Stevenson. The two Forts containing garrisons of about 1000 men were commanded by Brigadier General J. K. Duncan.

Plans for defense of the Forts called for fire rafts to be sent down the river to light the area and to burn or harass the Union ships.

The ironclad "Louisiana", unprepared for action, was employed as a floating battery above Fort St. Phillip. Because of a lack of unified command of the Confederate forces, there was no unity of action, misunderstandings of orders and maneuvers, and animosities between the Naval officers and the river defense prevented the plans from being carried out effectively.

The Union fleet, commanded by Farragut, consisted of 17 wooden ships. 20 mortar boats were led by Commander David Porter and 6000 Union soldiers aboard transports, ready to occupy New Orleans after her capture, were under the command of General Benjamin Franklin Butler.

Farragut's plan of attack was to have the mortar boats reduce the Fort's effectiveness before the fleet attempted to pass the guarded area. The barrier across the river was then to be severed for the passage. Since Fort Jackson was the stronger of the two Forts and in a more strategic position, most of the mortar fire was to be concentrated on it.

could not silence the Fort's batteries. He chose the morning of April 24, 1862, to attempt to pass the Forts. At 2:00 A.M. the 17 ships in three divisions started up river and this epic battle had begun.

The Union General Butler found the ensuing fight unique and described it in this fashion: "... 20 mortars, 142 guns in the fleet, 120 in the Forts, the crash of splinters, the explosion of the boilers and magazines, the shouts and cries, the shrieks of scalded and drowning men; add to this, the belching flashes of guns, blazing rafts of burning steamboats, the river full of fire, and you have a picture of the battle that was all confined to Plaquemine Bend."

The "Manassas", "MacRae" and the "Governor Moore" of the Confederate Naval forces fought gloriously. Fort Jackson's drawbridge was completely destroyed; the hot shot furnaces were demolished; the cisterns were razed to the ground; all casemates and passages were flooded by seepage caused by damage to levees by shell-fire. 4 guns were dismounted; 11 carriages and 30 beds and traverses were decommissioned. The outer walls of the Fort were cracked from top to bottom in several places through which rays of smoke-clouded sunlight filtered.

It has been computed that 3,330 shells had been thrown into the ditches and cluttered sections of the Fort; 1,080 shells exploded in the air over the Fort; 1,113 mortar shells were counted on the solid ground of the Fort and levees.

In all, 8,100 shells were fired at the Forts, especially Fort Jackson, and yet they did not fall or surrender. Fort Jackson, after a tremendous fight, was still defensible.

13 ships succeeded in passing the Forts and continued upriver to capture New Orleans. Farragut left Porter and his mortar boats along with Butler and some of his troops to capture Fort Jackson. The Forts continued their valiant fight until a mutiny broke out in Fort Jackson on April 27. The mutineers spiked many of the guns in the Fort, threatened their officers and deserted. This caused General Duncan to surrender the Forts to Porter on April 28, 1862.