The forts in question are Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip. They are located about 75 miles downriver from New Orleans on the south and north banks, respectively, of a bend in the Mississippi. Fort Jackson was a hexagonal masonry fort built between 1822-32. It was armed with 74 guns. Fort St. Phillip, was armed with 52 guns. A barrier of hulks chained together stretched across the river from Fort Jackson.

In addition to the forts, there were roughly 14 naval vessels (exclusive of unarmed tugs), mounting about 40 guns. However, the naval force was actually three commands - the Confederate States Navy, the Louisiana State Navy, and the River Defense Fleet (Confederate States Army) - and they failed to coordinate their actions. Furthermore, most of the ships only mounted a couple of guns and the Louisiana, potentially a formidable ironclad, was moored as a floating battery because its hastily installed engines were not powerful enough to manuever against the current.

Farragut began bombarding Fort Jackson on April 18 with 13 inch mortars from roughly 20 mortar schooners. On April 20, three gunboats opened a hole in the barrier. April 24, sixteen ships and gunboats, organized in three sections, ran past the forts. In so doing, one of the gunboats, the USS Varuna, got ahead of the rest of the fleet and was sunk by the RDF Stonewall Jackson, a cottonclad ram, which was also destroyed.

The USN lost 37 killed, 147 wounded and one gunboat sunk. The Confederate casualties are largely speculative, but they lost around 12 vessels.

Once the U.S. fleet passed the forts, Confederate forces evacuated New Orleans. Farragut steamed upriver and took the city unopposed.

The fall of New Orleans was the culmination of a string of losses resulting from Richmond's habitual neglect of the western theater.

Note: Sources vary on the precise numbers of guns, vessels and casualties, so all are approximate.