The following day, Palmer landed two regiments and a small battery under the command of Brig. Palmer, commander of the gunboat USS Iroquois. On May 7, 1862, Butler dispatched a small naval flotilla to Baton Rouge led by Captain James S. “Then endeavor to open your communication with the northern column by the Mississippi.” “The occupation of Baton Rouge by a combined naval and land force should be accomplished as soon as possible after you have gained New Orleans,” McClellan ordered Butler. McClellan stressing the importance of establishing a base of operations in New Orleans, so the Federals could strike out into the lower Mississippi Valley.
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Those conflicting motives started a race for Baton Rouge that culminated in a costly, confusing fight on the foggy morning of August 5.īutler had received orders from Union General-in-Chief George B. The Confederate high command saw Louisiana’s capital city as a steppingstone toward retaking New Orleans. Baton Rouge, known for its vital cotton and sugar processing facilities, lay in the path of the Union drive to Vicksburg.
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Federal planners then turned to Vicksburg as their next major goal. Philip at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and Union Major General Benjamin Butler had occupied New Orleans. That April, the Union Navy had over- whelmed the Confederate defenders of Forts Jackson and St. Bogged down in a back-and-forth fight, Confederates struggling to retake Louisiana’s capital waited in vain for help from their navy.īaton Rouge found itself at the center of unwanted attention in the late summer of 1862.