The importance of this conquest to the Union cause could hardly be estimated.

It enabled the government to embarrass the trans-Mississippi States in their support of the rebel army, and thus inflicted a heavy blow upon the fortunes of the Confederacy.
New Orleans in the control of the National Government was easy to defend, and it afforded a base of offensive operations in so many directions that no amount of vigilance could anticipate the attacks that might be made by the Union forces.
Viewed in connection with the effective work of Flag-officer Foote in supporting General Grant in the Henry and Donelson campaign, and of Gouldsborough in supporting Burnside on the coast of North Carolina, these later and greater achievements of the navy served to raise that branch of the service in popular esteem.

Besides the intrinsic merit which attached to the victories, they had all the advantage of a genuine surprise to the public.

Little had been expected from the navy in a contest where the field of operation seemed so restricted.

But now the people saw that the most important post thus far wrenched from the Confederacy had been taken by the navy, and that it was effectively sustaining and strengthening the army at all points.