I
(1815) Battle between the U.S. and Britain during the War of 1812 .
Late in 1814 a British fleet of more than 50 ships commanded by Gen. Edward Pakenham (1778–1815) sailed into the Gulf of Mexico and prepared to attack New Orleans. Gen.
II
(April 24–25, 1862) Naval action in the American Civil War .
A Union squadron of 43 ships led by {{link=Farragut, David Glasgow">David Farragut entered the Mississippi River below New Orleans and breached the chain cables stretched across the river as a defense. The 3,000 Confederate troops under Mansfield Lovell withdrew northward and the city fell. The Union army under Benjamin Butler entered the city on May 1 and began an occupation that lasted until the end of the war. The loss of New Orleans was a major blow to the Confederacy.