Congress had ordered the blockade of 3,500 miles of coast line. There were scarcely ships enough to maintain it, and the vessels for the New Orleans expedition had to be built or procured from other sources. After the Secretary of the Navy had decided to send a fleet against New Orleans and had given orders for the construction of it, the most serious question which presented itself was the selection of a commander. All of the naval officers of high rank were suggested and considered. It was to be the most powerful and splendid fleet ever gathered under the stars and stripes, and the Department moved cautiously in the matter of choosing a leader for it. Finally the name of David Glasgow Farragut was proposed. The Secretary of the Navy remembered that years before in the war with Mexico, Farragut had offered a daring plan for the capture of the strong fort of San Juan de Ulloa, at Vera Cruz. He proposed that the fort be “boarded” by attaching long ladders to the masts of the attacking ships, which should then be towed up to the walls of the fort. Secretary Welles was impressed at the time with the boldness and dash of the scheme, and though he had not seen Farragut since that day, and really knew very little of him, yet after some consultation he decided to offer him the command of the fleet. Farragut, who had never had a squadron, gladly accepted the honor and the responsibility. He had been trained by a life of study and active service for some great emergency like this, which came late in life, in his sixty-second year, but he was prepared for it and he knew it. Farragut adopted the plans which had been considered by the Navy Department and made them his own. He grasped the work before him with a degree of earnestness and enthusiasm unusual in men of his age. Secretary Welles says of him at that time: “In every particular he came up to all that was expected or required of him. He determined to pass the forts and restore New Orleans. He might not come back, he said, but the city would be ours.” After his arrival at Ship Island on the 25th of March, 1862, Farragut wrote: “I have now attained what I have been looking for all my life—a flag—and having attained it, all that is necessary to complete the scene is a victory. If I die in the attempt it will only be what every officer has to expect. He who dies in doing his duty to his country and at peace with his God, has played out the drama of life to the best advantage.” Here was a genuine pious hero of the old school, determined to do or to die. His task was a herculean one. New Orleans was defended by two forts erected at the lowest favorable point for the location of military works, above the Gulf. Fort St. Philip occupied the left bank of the river, and a short distance below it on the right bank stood Fort Jackson. These forts mounted in all one hundred and fifteen guns. A fort on the site of Jackson in 1815 held the British fleet in check for nine days.