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Battle of the Head of Passes
The Battle of the Head of Passes was a bloodless naval battle of the American Civil War. It was a naval raid made by the Confederate river defense fleet, also known as the “mosquito fleet” in the local media, on ships of the Union Blockade squadron anchored at the Head of Passes. The mosquito fleet was supported by three fire rafts, which were ignited and followed the ironclad ram into the action. The attack occurred after moonset in the early hours of October 12, 1861, and routed the Union fleet, which fled in disorder down the Southwest pass of the delta. After sunrise Commodore George N. Hollins ordered the mosquito fleet to withdraw upriver.
==Background==
Louisiana seceded from the Union on January 26, 1861. A navy department was established by the newly created Confederate government by February 21, 1861. Commodore Lawrence Rousseau was sent by Confederate Naval Secretary Stephen Mallory to manage the naval defense of New Orleans. His efforts were undercut by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who authorized the distribution of letters of marque and reprisal to the general population of the new Confederacy. These documents allowed the holder to capture union shipping for prize money from the Confederate government, insuring that everything that would float in Louisiana was snapped up by private investors hoping to make a profit. Rousseau was left to wallow in the wake of citizens eager to make up for revenue lost by the Confederate embargo on cotton, the former main export of New Orleans. He was only able to purchase six civilian riverboats for conversion into a makeshift navy. Mallory then replaced the hapless Rousseau with George N. Hollins, a former navy veteran who was promoted to Commodore and sent to New Orleans on July 31, 1861. Hollins organized the haphazard collection of six armed riverboats and christened it the “mosquito fleet”. His efforts to achieve more were impeded by Mallory’s ironclad projects intended to produce two mighty warships, the CSS ''Louisiana'' and CSS ''Mississippi''. These projects, and others authorized by Mallory tied up most of the resources useful to construction of more vessels for the mosquito fleet. Mallory was able to purchase two more civilian vessels for duty on Lake Pontchartrain. He received little support from Mallory, and seemed to be in competition with anyone else in New Orleans commanding aspects of its defense.〔Hearn, ''Capture of New Orleans, 1862,'' pp. 67-80.〕
On the Union Navy side, command and operations were much more focused. With a longstanding naval staff and command structure there was less time wasted once hostilities at Fort Sumter established the inevitability of naval action. The strategy of a Union blockade was formulated by General Winfield Scott and proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln on April 19, 1861. The blockade arrived off the Outer Pass of the Mississippi Delta when the arrived on May 27, 1861. The arrived off the Southwest pass on April 30. The arrival of these vessels was much sooner than anyone in New Orleans had imagined, and the panic-stricken rush when neutral shipping was given a fifteen day grace period to vacate the port was an ugly dose of reality to stack against the concept of business as usual. The arrival of the and made the reality of the blockade more solid. Aboard the ''Niagara'' was Captain William W. McKean, the new commander of the Mississippi blockade. On October 10, 1861, McKean ordered four Union ships to occupy the Head of the Passes, closing all exits from the lower delta at one point.〔Hearn, ''Capture of New Orleans, 1862,'' pp. 32-43.〕
For Commodore Hollins, time had run out. The prospect of the Union fleet occupying a base at the Head of Passes was intolerable. It was too convenient a point for an attack upon Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, the last line of defense for New Orleans. Hollins responded by taking his flagship, , southward from New Orleans to concentrate the mosquito fleet at Fort Jackson. Once there he sent with a boarding party under Lieutenant Alexander F. Warley to commandeer the privateer ironclad ram ''Manassas'' at gunpoint for the Confederate Navy. John A. Stevenson, representing the privateer owners of the ram, was heartbroken when his vessel was wrenched from his control, and departed the vessel in tears. Hollins was unmoved, since now his mosquito fleet seemed to have some chance against the much bigger vessels of the Union blockade. After moonset on October 12, in the hours of early morning, Hollins took his fleet south to engage the Union force at the Head of Passes.〔Hearn, ''Capture of New Orleans, 1862,'' pp. 84-5.〕
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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