USS Arletta was a schooner acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was used by the Union Navy as a gunboat and, at times, an ammunition ship, in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways.
Commissioned at the New York Navy Yard in 1862
Arletta—a schooner built in 1860 at Mystic, Connecticut—was purchased at New York City by the Union Navy on 7 September 1861 and commissioned in the New York Navy Yard on 30 January 1862.
Assigned to the Mortar Flotilla
The schooner departed New York Harbor on 4 February 1861 as a part of the Mortar Flotilla assembled to become a part of Flag Officer David Glasgow Farragut's newly established West Gulf Blockading Squadron. Besides sealing off the Confederate coast between Pensacola, Florida, and the mouth of the Rio Grande, Farragut was charged with leading a Union task force from the Gulf of Mexico up the Mississippi River to capture New Orleans, Louisiana. Once he had taken the "Crescent City", the flag officer was to continue on upstream until he met the warships of the Western Flotilla which were fighting their way down from the Ohio River and upper Mississippi River. The Lincoln Administration hoped that, if all went well, this strategy would cut the Confederacy in two and thus hasten the end of the rebellion.
However, two formidable defensive works, Forts Jackson and St. Philip, were located on opposite sides of the Mississippi below New Orleans, protecting the Southern metropolis from seaborne enemies. The Mortar Flotilla—commanded by Comdr. David Dixon Porter—had been set up to neutralize the batteries within these Confederate fortresses while Farragut's deep-draft, salt-water warships dashed past them to take New Orleans.
Blockade duty off Mobile Bay, Alabama
Following a stop at Key West, Florida, from 18 February to 6 March, Arletta performed blockade duty off Mobile Bay, Alabama, from 11 to 15 March, and then proceeded to Ship Island, Mississippi, whence she was towed by revenue cutter to the Mississippi River Delta. She crossed over the bar at Pass á Loutre on the 18th and entered the river.
Preparations for the attack on Mississippi River forts
Much was yet to be done before Farragut could launch his attack. His deep-draft steamers had to be laboriously worked over a bar that was far too shallow for them to cross under normal circumstances; surveying parties had to work almost within the shadows of the forts to locate and mark the positions of each schooner during the impending action; and the mortar boats had to be stripped for action and camouflaged with local underbrush and foliage to reduce their vulnerability to Southern artillery.
=== Arlettas guns strike Fort Jackson ===
Everything was finally ready by mid-afternoon of 16 April when Porter embarked in Arletta and took her—accompanied by two of her sister schooners—upriver to anchor at predetermined sites to test the mortars and their mounts and to determine the ranges of their targets. Confederate cannon fired intermittently upon the small Northern sailing ships, but the Southern rounds all fell short. Meanwhile, Arletta'''s mortar answered with five shells, three of which exploded inside Fort Jackson. After an hour's action, Porter—highly satisfied with the performance of his mortars, gunners, and ships—ordered his captains to retire downstream.
Confederates send out a fireship
The next day, hoping that it would collide with and set fire to one or more of the Union warships, Southerners put the torch to an incendiary-laden fire raft and cast it adrift as a fireship. When Union lookouts spotted the blazing barge, Arletta launched boats which took the menacing raft in tow, pulled it ashore, and put out the fire.
Union ships increase fire to allow Farragut to pass the fort
On the morning of the 18th, the steamers of the flotilla towed the schooners into position to begin a steady and prolonged bombardment of the forts. Arletta—assigned to the first division of schooners, commanded by Lt. Watson Smith—got off 96 shells during the first day, but lost one man who was killed by an 8-inch solid shot from Fort Jackson which also briefly put her mortar out of action. For the next few days, the schooners kept up the shelling. Then, during the wee hours of the 24th; they greatly increased the tempo of their cannonade to give Farragut's steam warships the maximum possible support during their run by the forts.