 At that time, early March 1863, Admiral Farragut was preparing to push up the Mississippi once more to help tighten the stranglehold which Admiral David Dixon Porter and General Ulysses S. Grant were closing around Vicksburg.Once past the Confederate batteries at Port Hudson, he intended to blockade the mouth of the Red River to stop the flow of men and supplies from the west to Southern armies fighting east of the Mississippi.While Farragut approached Port Hudson on 14 March, , "Sachem", and several mortar schooners were already in position below the forts.