In 1862, Farragut with his fleet took New Orleans. His victory drove an entering wedge into the heart of the Confederacy and gave to the navy of the United States a prestige which it had never enjoyed and which in its present enfeebled state it is rapidly losing. New Orleans was the wealthiest and most populous city of the Confederacy; it was four times larger than either Charleston or Richmond, and before the war had the largest export trade of any city in the world. Commanding mid-continental navigation and being the key to the Gulf, its military value was equal to its commercial importance. The plan for the capture of New Orleans by the navy, and the reduction of the forts which guarded the approach to it from the south, originated in the Navy Department in the fall of 1861. The credit for proposing this plan has been claimed by more persons than one, and it is likely that it was conceived and developed from suggestions and hints received from a variety of sources. It was determined that a naval expedition should be sent against New Orleans. The plan found little favor with army officers, but the President became interested in it and Secretary Welles set about carrying it into effect. The attention of military men was concentrated on a proposed combination of the forces of the army and the navy for the capture of New Orleans, in an expedition which was to descend to the city from the upper waters of the Mississippi River. This scheme seemed more attractive, and the idea of taking New Orleans by means of a fleet advancing from the Gulf had never been entertained in military circles. When Stanton became Secretary of War and was told of the proposed naval expedition, he was astonished at the originality and audacity of the idea and exclaimed: “An attack upon New Orleans by the navy! I never heard of it! It is the best news you could give me.” Secretary Stanton entered cordially into the spirit of the project and increased the number of the troops which General McClelland had promised, from ten thousand to eighteen thousand. Shortly after this, General B. F. Butler was made acquainted with the purpose of Secretary Welles and he was given the command of the military force which was to hold New Orleans after the fleet had taken it. There is no evidence that General Butler suggested any of the important plans or details for the expedition or that he had any definite plans concerning it.