iowa senator james grimes, a member of the senate committee on naval affairs told assistant secretary of the navy, fox, the country looks to the navy. don't wait for the army. take new orleans and hold it until the army comes up. and that's exactly how it happened. the schooners commanded by foster brother, commander david dixon porter were towed into position on april 18 to begin bombarding the forts. over the next six days and nights they lobbed thousands of shells into damage but knocking out a few of the guns. ferigate decided to run his ships past the forts in the predawn darkness of april 24. this was not a popular decision among his captains who had in the words of one of them, little or no feeling of success. for his part, though, he wrote to his wife success is the only thing listened to in this war. and i know i must sink or swim by that rule. as to being prepared for defeat i certainly am not. any man who is prepared for defeat would be half defeated before he commenced. on april 22, ferigate called for a meeting of his captains to plan the attack. in military annals it was

iowa senator, james grimes, a member of the naval committee on affairs told the assistant of the navy fox that the for the a. take new orleans and hold it until the arm comes up. and that's exactly how it happened. the mortar scooners were towed into position on april 18th to begin bombarding the forts. over the next six days and nights they lobbed thousands of 216-pound shells into the forts doing a lot of damage but knocking out only a few of the guns. he grew impatient and decided to run his ships past the forts in the predawn darkness of april 24th. this was not a popular decision among his captains who had in the words of one of them little or no feeling of success. for his part though, he wrote to his wife success is the only thing listened to in this war, and i know i must sink or swim by that rule. as to being prepared for defeat, i certainly am not. any man who is prepared for defeat would be half defeated before he commenced. on april 22nd, he called for a meeting of his captains to plan the attack. it was proverbial that councils of war never fight but this one proved to be