124 The American Civil WarPerhaps even more stunning than the
Union victory at Shiloh was Flag Officer
David G. Farragut's capture of New Orleans.
Louisiana, three weeks later. His wooden
frigates and gunboats, carrying Brigadier-
General Benjamin Butler's 15,000 soldiers,
approached the forts protecting the mouth
of the Mississippi River. After a week of
bombarding the strongholds, Farragut's
mortars failed to reduce the forts, so the
determined sailor decided to run his flotilla
by the forts. Before daybreak on 24 April,
Farragut slipped his 17 vessels past the forts
and moved upriver, though the Confederates
managed to disable three smaller vessels. Less
than a week later, Farragut's sailors and
marines captured New Orleans without
resistance as Brigadier-General Mansfield
Lovell sent his forces away from the city.Simultaneously, General Butler forced the
surrender of the river forts and then sent his
men to occupy New Orleans.
Not only had the Federals captured the
Confederacy's largest city and leading port,
but also the capture came on the heels of the
defeat at Shiloh. Again the Confederates
suffered the consequences of a lack of
manpower to cover the vast western terrain.
Confederate authorities believed that the
main Union offensive was to come from
upriver, so they ordered most of the soldiers
and several gunboats north, leaving New
Orleans vulnerable to attack.
The cumulative effect of these disasters
was devastating to the Confederacy. The loss
of Forts Henry and Donelson, the bloody
defeat at Shiloh, and the capture of two of
the Confederacy's most prominent cities,
Nashville and New Orleans, cast a dark
shadow over the war effort. The loss of these
strategic places and manpower, coupled with
the fact that McClellan had besieged
Yorktown, Virginia, and was preparing to
advance against Richmond with the largest
force ever assembled on the North American
continent, forced the Confederate
government to consider desperate measures.
On 16 April, the Confederate Congress
approved the first National Conscription Act
in the nation's history. Although some
Confederates bitterly opposed this Act,
arguing that it was an infringement of their
liberties, others argued that the Confederacy
with its limited manpower must raise troops
and that states' rights would have to
succumb to the Confederate cause. All white
males between 18 and 35 years of age would
be subjected to three years militan service.
As the victory bells rang throughout the
North in celebration of the accomplishments
in the west, Southerners had no such
expression. In fact, in stark contrast, church
bells and plantation bells in the South were
being melted down to be used in the war
effort. At one point, Beauregard wrote to
Father James Mullen of St Patrick's church in
New Orleans that although 'our wives and
children have been accustomed to the call,
and would miss the tones of the "Church-
going bells," ... there is no alternative we
must make the sacrifice ...' As much as he
wanted to spare the necessity of depriving
the South's plantations and churches of their
bells, he simply could not. The war was
heating up and Beauregard needed every
available resource to carry on his operations
to restore the Confederacy in the west.Union advances into Mississippi
and TennesseeAfter Shiloh and the capture of New Orleans,
the pace of Union success slowed, but
Federal armies were still on the move. By the
end of May 1862, Halleek's enormous army
of over 100,000 troops had cautiously inched
its way to Corinth, Mississippi, thinking that
the Confederates had regrouped and would
give battle. Beauregard, however, was in no
position to fight Halleck and deceptively
evacuated the small rail town during the
night of 29 May, heading south to Tupelo,
Mississippi, some 80 miles (130km) away. In
one of the great ruses of the war, the entire
operation was carried out so skillfully that
Halleck and his commanders were oblivious.
When Halleck rode into Corinth on the
afternoon of 30 May, he found an empty
town. At one point he noticed a blue