Farragut crossed the bar, April 8th, and spent several days in making his preparations for bombarding Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The bombardment began April 27th, 1,400 shells being thrown in one day. Farragut then called his captains together and told them he had resolved to run by the forts. The only question, therefore, was as to the best means of doing it. It was decided to make the attempt at night. The darkness, however, was of little benefit, since the enemy's huge bonfires on both shores lit up the river as if it were noonday. Previous to this, Lieutenant C.H.B. Caldwell, in the gunboat _Itasca_, had ascended the river undiscovered in the darkness and opened a way through the boom for the fleet. Farragut arranged the fleet in two columns, his own firing upon Fort Jackson, while the other poured its broadsides into Fort St. Philip. The flagship _Hartford_ led the way under cover of Porter's mortar-boats and the others followed. There was a furious fight between the fleets, but every Confederate was either captured or destroyed. Farragut steamed on to the city, silencing the batteries along the banks, and, at noon, a messenger was sent ashore with a demand for the surrender of the city. General Lovell was in command of 3,000 troops, intended for the defense of New Orleans, but he fled. The mayor refusing to haul down the secession flag, the Union troops took possession, raised the Union banner over the mint, and placed the city in charge of General Butler. The citizens were in such a savage mood that Commodore Farragut had to bring them to their senses by a threat to bombard the city. General Butler ruled with great strictness, and virtually held New Orleans under martial law. A Confederate won the applause of his friends by climbing to the top of the mint, hauling down the flag, dragging it through the mud, and then tearing it to shreds. Butler brought him to trial before a military commission, and, being found guilty of the unpardonable insult to the flag, he was hanged. The fall of New Orleans, one of the leading cities, was a severe blow to the Confederacy. The only points where the Mississippi was strongly held by the enemy were at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, and attention was already turned to them. Farragut having completed his work, for the time took command in the Gulf of Mexico. [Illustration: LIBBY PRISON IN 1865.] The most momentous events of the year occurred in the east and marked the struggle between the Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, as it came to be called. THE ADVANCE AGAINST RICHMOND.