sentences:  By the time Lovell was posted to New Orleans, Abraham Lincoln had approved plans for a Union Navy attempt to capture New Orleans by entering the Mississippi River at its mouth and sailing northward 80 miles to the city.Neither Lovell, or the city's officials or the Navy Department in Richmond thought this was a credible option and concentrated on plans to repel Union land forces from approaching the city from the Upper Mississippi area.Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the two Confederate forts at the mouth of the river, were believed sufficient to discourage an up-river assault in the unlikely event such a tactic was planned.