Monroe County Civil War Roundtable

Victory on the Mississippi

In the early morning darkness of April 24, 1862, U.S. Navy ships under the command of Captain David Farragut raised anchor and headed up the Mississippi River. Their destination—New Orleans. After surviving a chain barrier, a fusillade from Rebel guns, and a makeshift southern fleet, the Yankee juggernaut pushed on and captured the South’s largest city. “New Orleans is gone, and with it the Confederacy,” a tearful diarist bemoaned. Historian Roger Rosentreter chronicles how a native Tennessean--who remained loyal to the Stars and Stripes--led one of the Civil War’s most spectacular naval campaigns.

Roger L. Rosentreter is a visiting professor at Michigan State University. He served twenty-two years as the editor of Michigan History Magazine, one of the most popular state history magazines, and is the author of Michigan: A History of Explorers, Entrepreneurs, and Everyday People and Grand Rapids and the Civil War. He coauthored Michigan’s Early Military Forces: A Roster and History of Troops Activated Prior to the American Civil War, Michigan Remembers Lincoln, and Seeking Lincoln in Michigan: A Remembrance Trail.  His newest book is Many a Hand: Michigan and the Civil War soon to be in print.