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Several vessels were in course of construction by the Navy Department, but according to the express orders of President Davis “the fleet maintained at the port of New Orleans and vicinity formed no part of the command of Gen. Lovell.” The first step taken by that officer was to secure ammunition, of which there was less than twenty pounds per gun; the second was to complete the “raft between Forts Jackson and St. Philip, so as to make a complete obstruction under the fire of those works.” On the 8th November, Gen. Lovell wrote to the Department that he had increased the armament of Forts Pike and Macomb, and thought he would be able to make a complete obstruction of the raft, so that if the enemy's ships should be stopped, they would be hammered to pieces. This obstruction was calculated to delay a “fleet under the close fire of more than one hundred heavy guns.” Measures were also taken to obstruct the passage at Forts Pike and Macomb, and the river above the city, the commanding General “feeling satisfied that ships under steam can pass forts in an open channel.”
On the 5th December, 1861, a statement was made to the War Department of the existing condition of affairs, in which it was shown that the city was defended by two lines of works, for which Gen. Lovell had 8,000 men, besides the militia of the city. Two powder mills were in running order, and the announcement was made that with a “sufficiency of this material, he should consider himself in a position to hold New Orleans for an indefinite length of time.” The city was then strong enough to withstand any attack likely to be made, and Gen. Lovell stated that the enemy, who were at that time landing troops at Ship Island in large numbers, “could not take New Orleans by a land attack with any force they could bring to bear.”
In the beginning of January the attention of the Department was directed to the necessity of giving to the commanding General the control of at least so much of the Navy Department as would enable him, by means of light-draught armed vessels, to protect the navigable streams along the coast; Gen. Lovell adding, that “the blame of want of protection will rest upon me in any event, and I should, therefore, have some power to say what should be done.” No answer to this request was made.
The Secretary of War, about this time, furnished Gen. Lovell with the plan and details of the river defence fleet, under Montgomery, for “service in the upper Mississippi,” which was to be prepared at New Orleans, by Capts. Montgomery and Townsend, and the General was directed “merely to exercise such general supervision as to check any profligate expenditure.”
On the 13th January, Gen. Lovell wrote, that “considering New Orleans to be in condition to resist an attack, I am turning my attention ”
