Capture of New Orleans

Union capture of New Orleans of 25 April to 1 May 1862 during the American Civil War, after Union forces fought past Forts Jackson and St. Philip and took the city unopposed. The fall of the largest Confederate city, a major international event, was a turning point that precipitated Union capture of the Mississippi River. It caught Confederate generals by surprise, as they had planned for an attack from the north rather than from the Gulf of Mexico.