For the next month, while Farragut labored to move his deep-draft, sea-going ships across the bar and into the Mississippi, Porter's vessels drilled and prepared for the fight awaiting them.

John Griffith, now under Acting Master Henry Brown, was in the 3rd Division commanded by her old skipper, Lt. Breese, who placed his schooners along the western bank of the river just below the lower limit of Fort Jackson's fire.

John Griffith pressed the attack with great vigor, leading the ships of her division on 4 days of the weeklong bombardment which continued until Farragut had succeeded in fighting his mighty fleet past the forts to capture New Orleans in one of the war's most daring and strategically significant operations.

When he was barely beyond the forts, Farragut paused to bury his dead, repair his ships, and dash off a note of thanks to Porter for the help of the mortars: "You supported us most nobly."

Five days later John Griffith shelled Fort Beaulieu, the Confederate fortress defending the mouths of the Vernon and Burnside Rivers.