New Orleans was captured by David Farragut on May 1, 1862, after the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which were the last Confederate military positions before arriving to New Orleans . It was the fall of the largest Confederation city, which had an enormous strategic importance. The Confederates lost the two biggest battleships of the world (the CSS Mississippi and the CSS Louisiana), and a port of primary importance for the naval war on the Mississippi River.