Map of battlefield core and study areas.
<p>The Study Area was extended north to the approximate location of the CSS Arkansas’s first breakdown, which kept the warship from arriving at Baton Rouge on August 5 to support Breckinridge’s attack.
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The lower Core Area encompasses the main battle on August 5th. The upper Core Area is the location of the brief duel between the USS Essex and the CSS Arkansas on August 6. The USS Essex had prevented the Arkansas from “rendering further assistance to the land forces she was cooperating with.” (Report of Commander W. D. Porter, Off Baton Rouge, August 6, 1862, in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 19).
American Battlefield Protection Program
National Park Service