Chattanogga, but problems with the Union supply lines prevented Buell from capturing the city. Bragg, pondering how to counteract the Union threat, received a message from Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Department of East Tennessee, suggesting that the two combine forces to defeat Buell and retake Kentucky. Moving his troops by rail starting the end of June, Bragg arrived at Chattanooga near the end of July; from there he advanced into Kentucky towards the Ohio River. Buell moved north as well, managing to reach Louisville before Bragg did; from there he moved south towards Bragg. The two armies met in battle near Perryville, Kentucky on October 8; Bragg's forces attacked Buell's left wing but without success. Bragg retreated that night and united with Smith, intending to remain in Kentucky, but when Buell threatened his line of retreat, Bragg move south for Tennessee. The Union navy, in concert with the army, captured several more coastal areas along the Atlantic seaboard and Gulf coast. Following the Union victory at Hatteras Inlet the previous year, other parts of the North Carolina coast, including New Berne, were captured; in April, Union forces attacked and captured Fort Pulaski in Georgia following a thirty hour bombardment, cutting off Savannah from blockade runners. This victory left Wilmington, North Carolina as the only major Atlantic port to remain in Confederate hands. Several ports in Florida and along the Gulf coast were captured as well, including Apalachicola and St. Augustine in Florida and Biloxi, Mississippi. In April, a Union squadron commanded by Commodore David Farragut ran past Forts Jackson and St. Philip near the mouth of the Mississippi River and forced the surrender of New Orleans, the largest Confederate port city in both population and in trade volume. In the Trans-Mississippi Theater, the Confederates launched several offensive campaigns, all of which failed. In late January, Union Major General Samuel R. Curtis maneuvered the Missouri State Guard out of the state and into northwestern Arkansas; due to a shortage of supplies, Curtis had to halt his advance in the area of Pea Ridge. In response to the Union advance, Confederate President Jefferson Davis sent Major General Earl Van Dorn to Arkansas to take command of the Confederate forces in the state. After he arrived in early March, Van Dorn launched an offensive of his own, which resulted in the two-day Battle of Pea Ridge, a Confederate