The defeat of the British attack in September on Fort Bowyer prevented the British from taking Mobile, Alabama, and moving to cut off U.S. trade via land towards the Mississippi River. Next, the British decided to attack New Orleans and the Americans began receiving warnings of a British fleet approaching Louisiana. The warnings reached Commodore Daniel Patterson of the New Orleans Squadron, who immediately began to assemble any and all types of naval defenses to protect the state's waterways and naval ports.