In an effort to by-pass Vicksburg, the Federals sent the navy into the flooded Mississippi Delta through the Yazoo Pass. The expedition failed when Confederates at Fort Pemberton near Greenwood successfully repulsed the Union gunboats in mid-March. To aid in this attempt, Confederate forces sunk the ship The Star of the West in the Tallahatchie River near Greenwood to prevent the passage of Union ships.