Mortar boats.

[AndyHall]

With apologies to Mark, the map up-thread showing damage to Fort Jackson is a famous one, but it requires very close study (or very good eyesight) to pick out the extent of damage. Here is that same map, color-coded to show:

Bomb (shell) damage in RED.
Shot (solid ball) damage in YELLOW.
Burned areas in BLUE.
Collapsed ramparts repaired with sandbags in GREEN.

Simply stated, by the time Farragut's squadron passed up the river, Fort Jackson was a shambles, primarily as result of days of bombardment by the mortar boats. Jackson wasn't put out of action, because it was designed to withstand such an attack, but the place was a wreck.

 

[USS ALASKA]

@AndyHall

Wow - outstanding visual, sir!

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Lubliner]

What about the advance bombardment east of Savannah, when troops were landed in 1862 or 3...any mortar action there?
Lubliner.

 

[USS ALASKA]

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Illinois Research and Scholarship
University Library
IDEALS
2023-04-13
Text Copyright, 2023-04-13, by Lowell L. Getz. All Rights Reserved.

Commander Porter's Mortar Flotilla
Getz, Lowell L.

Abstract
Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, established a Mortar Flotilla, under command of Commander David D. Porter, early in the American Civil War, as the Union navy prepared to gain control of the Mississippi River. The Mortar Flotilla was placed in support of Flag Officer David G. Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron, given the task of clearing Confederate fortifications up to Vicksburg. The flotilla consisting of twenty-two wind propelled schooners and eight steamers, took part in the battles for Forts Jackson and St. Philip, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and the attack on Vicksburg. In this report, I provided detailed accounts of the actions of the Mortar Flotilla in these battles.

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/126478/bitstreams/413560/object

Because of copyright, please use above link.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

Journal Article
The Union Mortar Boats
William T. Adams
Ordnance, Vol. 46, No. 251 (MARCH-APRIL 1962), pp. 659-662
National Defense Industrial Association

https://www.jstor.org/stable/45363478

Full articles at above links on JSTOR with Google sign-in (In the upper right-hand corner of the linked page, there is a 'Log in' button. If you have a Gmail account, you have a Google sign-in and this will allow for free reading of 100 articles a month).

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Pollaco]

You had the mortar rafts and the mortar schooners. The rafts were obviously towed but what about the schooners? Where they towed as well or did they provide their own way of being transported? From pictures of them I can see no reason for their being towed.