Union loyalty and tide-led operations

Although Southern-born, Farragut regarded secession as treason and identified with the United States he had served throughout his life. He was reluctant to target friends and relatives around Norfolk but accepted operations against his childhood home of New Orleans. There he planned around tides, channels, and ship movement even when army schedules demanded a different timetable. The watch point shows accumulated navigation skill becoming an operational command principle: land forces could adjust their march, but ships could not negotiate with the tide.