USS Sarah Bruen
USS Sarah Bruen was a wooden schooner acquired by the United States Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War. After being installed with a large (13") mortar, Sarah Bruen was used by the Union Navy, in its blockade of Confederate States of America ports and waterways, as a gunship whose main task was to bombard elevated targets which could not be reached by standard cannon or rifled guns. Commissioned in New York City in 1862 She was purchased by the Union Navy at New York City on 3 September 1861, and was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 3 February 1862. Civil War service New Orleans operations The schooner was assigned to Commander David Dixon Porter's mortar flotilla and proceeded to Ship Island, Mississippi to support Flag Officer David Farragut's attack on New Orleans, Louisiana. The mortar schooners shelled the Southern riverside forts for a week before Farragut's deep draft ships raced past the Confederate batteries and captured New Orleans, Louisiana. Mississippi River operations The schooners sailed to the entrance to Mobile Bay which they blockaded until Flag Officer Farragut called them back to the Mississippi River to bombard new and increasingly strong Confederate batteries at