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Battle of New Orleans (Civil War)
Encyclopedia
The Capture of New Orleans (April 25 – May 1, 1862) during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
was an important event for the Union. Having fought past Forts Jackson and St. Philip
Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip
The Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip was the decisive battle for possession of New Orleans in the American Civil War. The two Confederate forts on the Mississippi River south of the city were attacked by a Union Navy fleet...
, the Union was unopposed in its capture of the city itself, which was spared the destruction suffered by many other Southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
cities. However, the controversial and confrontational administration of the city by its military governor caused lasting resentment. This capture of the largest Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
city was a major turning point
Turning point of the American Civil War
There is widespread disagreement over the turning point of the American Civil War. The idea of a turning point is an event after which most observers would agree that the eventual outcome was inevitable. While the Battle of Gettysburg is the most widely cited , there are several other arguable...
and an incident of international importance.
The industrial revolution on the Mississippi
The History of New OrleansHistory of New Orleans
The history of New Orleans, Louisiana traces the city's development from its founding by the French, through its period under Spanish control, then back to French rule before being sold to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase...
shows some significant contrasts to other histories of cities that became part of the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. Due to its founding by the French, and ownership by Spain for a time, New Orleans had a more cosmopolitan culture and diverse population. Only 13 percent of the 1810 population was Anglo-American. The census population of that time was made up of mostly French speaking refuges from the Haitian Revolution
Haitian Revolution
The Haitian Revolution was a period of conflict in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, which culminated in the elimination of slavery there and the founding of the Haitian republic...
, the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
, and French and Spanish Creole
Louisiana Creole people
Louisiana Creole people refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers in Louisiana, especially those of French and Spanish descent. The term was first used during colonial times by the settlers to refer to those who were born in the colony, as opposed to those born in the Old World...
s along with some smuggled slaves. New Orleans also benefited more by the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, international trade, and geographical position. Its position by the mouth of the Mississippi River, which drained most of the North American Continent made New Orleans one of the most significant transportation hubs in the early United States before the establishment of railroads and road systems. Of particular significance was the invention of the Steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
and the Cotton Gin
Cotton gin
A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, a job formerly performed painstakingly by hand...
. Before the steamboat, Keelboat
Keelboat
Keelboat has two distinct meanings related to two different types of boats: one a riverine cargo-capable working boat, and the other a classification for small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yachts.-Historical keel-boats:...
men bringing cargo downriver would break up their boats for lumber in New Orleans and walk back to Ohio or Illinois to repeat the process. Steamboats had enough power to stem the current of the Mississippi, and making two way trades possible from New Orleans to all cities in the interior river network. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
in 1815, which greatly expanded international trade, and the use of the cotton gin, cotton became a valuable export product, adding to the volume of cargo moved through the city.
Jacksonian democracy and manifest destiny
A formative event in the early history of New Orleans was the Battle of New OrleansBattle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans took place on January 8, 1815 and was the final major battle of the War of 1812. American forces, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, defeated an invading British Army intent on seizing New Orleans and the vast territory the United States had acquired with the...
. This battle, though fought after the end of the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, would enhance the political career of Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
, who in turn would found the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
along with Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
. President Jackson would become the first of America’s “Imperial Presidents”, and begin a new political movement called the Jacksonian Democracy
Jacksonian democracy
Jacksonian democracy is the political movement toward greater democracy for the common man typified by American politician Andrew Jackson and his supporters. Jackson's policies followed the era of Jeffersonian democracy which dominated the previous political era. The Democratic-Republican Party of...
. This new direction in American politics would have a profound influence on the development of New Orleans and the American Southwest. One of these developments was the construction of Fort Jackson, Louisiana
Fort Jackson, Louisiana
Fort Jackson is a decommissioned masonry fort located some up river from the mouth of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. It was constructed as a coastal defense of New Orleans between 1822 and 1832, and was a battle site in the American Civil War. It is a National Historic...
, a Star Fort
Star fort
A star fort, or trace italienne, is a fortification in the style that evolved during the age of gunpowder, when cannon came to dominate the battlefield, and was first seen in the mid-15th century in Italy....
suggested by and named after President Andrew Jackson. This fortress was intended to support Fort St. Philip
Fort St. Philip
Fort St. Philip is a decommissioned masonry fort located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, about up river from its mouth in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana...
and bar the Mississippi Delta from invasion. The presidents of the Jacksonian Democracy would support the concept of Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent. It was used by Democrat-Republicans in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico; the concept was denounced by Whigs, and fell into disuse after the mid-19th century.Advocates of...
, greatly expanding acquisition of territory in the American Southwest, and the support of international trade along with the spread of slavery. This powerful political movement would also produce sectional tension between the northern and southern halves of the United States, and result in the creation of the Whig Party
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...
to oppose the new Democratic Party. As the political rivalry between the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs intensified, The Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
was founded, to counter the spread of slavery into states produced by territorial conquests of the Jacksonian Democrats. The victory of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, the Republican presidential candidate in the election of 1860, would result in the secession crisis and the American Civil War.
The jewel in the mouth of the Mississippi
By the year 1860, the City of New Orleans was in a position of unprecedented economic, military, and political power. The Mexican American War, along with the Texas AnnexationTexas Annexation
In 1845, United States of America annexed the Republic of Texas and admitted it to the Union as the 28th state. The U.S. thus inherited Texas's border dispute with Mexico; this quickly led to the Mexican-American War, during which the U.S. captured additional territory , extending the nation's...
, had made New Orleans even more of a springboard for expansion. The California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
would contribute another share to local wealth. The electrical telegraph
Electrical telegraph
An electrical telegraph is a telegraph that uses electrical signals, usually conveyed via telecommunication lines or radio. The electromagnetic telegraph is a device for human-to-human transmission of coded text messages....
arrived in New Orleans in 1848, and the completion of the New Orleans, Jackson, and Great Northern Railroad from New Orleans to Canton, a distance of over 200 miles, would add another dimension to local transportation. The combination of all these factors would result in a price rise of prime field hands of 21 per cent in 1848, and remain rising along with the value of trade through the 1850s. During the year 1860 New Orleans was one of the greatest ports in the world, with 33 different steamship lines, and trade worth 500 million dollars passing through the city. As far as population, the city not only outnumbered any other city in the South, it was larger than the combination of the largest four other cities, with an estimated population of 168,675.
New Orleans takes a stand
The election of Lincoln in 1860 would inspire one of the most ardent secessionists in Louisiana, its governor, Thomas Overton MooreThomas Overton Moore
Thomas Overton Moore was an attorney and politician who was the 16th Governor of Louisiana from 1860 until 1864 during the American Civil War.-Early years:...
, who had taken office on January 23, 1860. Governor Moore interdicted an effort to make New Orleans a “free city”, or neutral area in the conflict. A solid Democrat, Moore organized a effective and discrete movement that voted Louisiana out of the Union in a secession convention that represented only 5 per cent of the citizens of Louisiana. Moore also ordered the Louisiana militia to seize the Federal arsenal at Baton Rouge, and the Federal forts Fort Jackson, Fort St. Philip
Fort St. Philip
Fort St. Philip is a decommissioned masonry fort located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, about up river from its mouth in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana...
, and Fort Pike
Fort Pike
Fort Pike is a decommissioned 19th century fort, named after Brigadier General Zebulon Montgomery Pike, which formerly guarded the Rigolets pass in Louisiana. It was near the community of Petite Coquille, Louisiana, and now within the city limits of New Orleans, and was long a tourist attraction...
, which guarded the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain, along with the army barracks south of the city. Fort Macomb
Fort Macomb
Fort Macomb is a 19th century fortress in Louisiana, on the western shore of Chef Menteur Pass. The fort is adjacent to the Venetian Isles community, now legally within the city limits of New Orleans, Louisiana, although some miles distant from the city when first built and still a considerable...
, which guarded the other side of the inlet was also occupied. These military moves were ordered on January 8, 1861, before the secession convention. With military companies forming all over Louisiana, the convention itself was anti-climactic, voting Louisiana out of the Union 113 to 17. The outbreak of hostilities in the area of Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...
would lead to the story of New Orleans in the Civil War
New Orleans in the Civil War
New Orleans, in Louisiana, was the largest city in the Southern States during the American Civil War. It provided thousands of troops for the Confederate States Army, as well as several leading officers and generals...
.
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....
's "Anaconda Plan
Anaconda Plan
The Anaconda Plan or Scott's Great Snake is the name widely applied to an outline strategy for subduing the seceding states in the American Civil War. Proposed by General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, the plan emphasized the blockade of the Southern ports, and called for an advance down the Mississippi...
" called for the division of the Confederacy by seizing control of the Mississippi River. One of the first steps in such operations was the imposition of the Union Blockade
Union blockade
The Union Blockade, or the Blockade of the South, took place between 1861 and 1865, during the American Civil War, when the Union Navy maintained a strenuous effort on the Atlantic and Gulf Coast of the Confederate States of America designed to prevent the passage of trade goods, supplies, and arms...
. After the blockade was established, a Confederate naval counterattack attempted to drive off the Union navy, resulting in the Battle of the Head of Passes
Battle of the Head of Passes
The Battle of the Head of Passes was a bloodless naval battle of the American Civil War. It was a naval raid made by the Confederate river defense fleet, also known as the “mosquito fleet” in the local media, on ships of the Union Blockade squadron anchored at the Head of Passes...
. The Union countermove was to enter the mouth of the Mississippi River, ascend to New Orleans and capture the city, closing off the mouth of the Mississippi to Rebel ships. In mid-January 1862, Flag Officer David G. Farragut undertook this enterprise with his West Gulf Blockading Squadron. The way was soon open except for the two masonry forts, Jackson and St. Philip
Fort St. Philip
Fort St. Philip is a decommissioned masonry fort located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, about up river from its mouth in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana...
, above the Head of Passes
Head of Passes
Head of Passes is where the main stem of the Mississippi River branches off into three distinct directions at its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico: Southwest Pass , Pass A Loutre and South Pass...
, approximately seventy miles below New Orleans.
From April 18 to April 28, Farragut bombarded and then fought his way past the forts in the Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, managing to get thirteen ships up river on April 24. Historian John D. Winters
John D. Winters
John David Winters was a historian at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana, best known for his definitive and award-winning study, The Civil War in Louisiana, still in print, published in 1963 and released in paperback in 1991.-Background:Winters was born to John David Winters, Sr...
in The Civil War in Louisiana (1963) noted that with few exceptions the Confederate fleet at New Orleans had "made a sorry showing. Self-destruction, lack of co-operation, cowardice of untrained officers, and the murderous fire of the Federal gunboats reduced the fleet to a demoralized shambles."
The enemy at the dock
Major General Mansfield LovellMansfield Lovell
Mansfield Lovell was a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was roundly criticized in Southern newspapers for allowing Union forces to capture the city of New Orleans....
, Commander of Department 1, Louisiana, was left with only one option after the Union Navy broke through the Confederate ring of fortifications and defense vessels guarding the lower Mississippi: Evacuation. The inner ring of fortifications at Chalmette was only intended to resist infantry, and few of the gun batteries were aimed at the river. Most of the artillery, ammunition, troops and vessels were committed to the Jackson/St. Phillips position. Once this line was forced, all that remained were three thousand militia armed with shotguns, and sundry military supplies. The city itself was also a poor position to defend against a hostile fleet. With high water outside the levees, the Union ships were elevated above the city, and able to fire down on the buildings below. Any break in the levees would have flooded most of the city, destroying it within a day.
Lovell loaded his troops and supplies aboard the New Orleans, Jackson, and Northern Pacific railroad and sent it to Camp Moore
Camp Moore
Camp Moore, north of the Village of Tangipahoa near Kentwood, Louisiana, was a Confederate training base and principal base of operations in eastern Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi. The base was named for Louisiana Governor Thomas Overton Moore and operated from May 1861 to 1864 during the...
, 78 miles north. All artillery and munitions were sent to Vicksburg. Lovell then sent a last message to the War Department in Richmond, “The enemy has passed the forts. It is too late to send any guns here; they had better go to Vicksburg.” Military stores, ships, and warehouses were then burned. Anything considered useful to the Union including thousands of bales of cotton were thrown into the river.
Despite the complete vulnerability of the city, the citizens along with military and civil authorities remained defiant. At 2:00 p.m. on 25 April, Admiral Farragut sent Captain Bailey
Theodorus Bailey (naval officer)
Theodorus Bailey was a United States Navy officer during the American Civil War.-Early career:Bailey was born at Chateaugay, New York in the far north-eastern corner of Franklin County, near the border with Quebec. He received his early education at Plattsburgh, before being appointed a midshipman...
, First Division Commander from the , to accept the surrender of the city. Armed mobs within the city defied the Union officers and sailors sent to city hall. General Lovell refused to surrender the city, along with Mayor Monroe. William B. Mumford
William B. Mumford
William Bruce Mumford was a North Carolina native and resident of New Orleans, Louisiana who was hanged for tearing down a United States flag during the American Civil War.- Flag incident :...
pulled down a Union flag raised over the former U.S. mint by sailors of the and the mob destroyed it. Farragut did not destroy the city in response, but moved upriver to subdue fortifications north of the city. On April 29, Farragut and 250 marines from the removed the Louisiana State flag from the City Hall.
Occupation and Pacification
The rise of a political general
On May 1, 1862 Maj. Gen. Benjamin ButlerBenjamin Franklin Butler (politician)
Benjamin Franklin Butler was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts....
, with an army of 5,000 men occupied the city of New Orleans without resistance. Butler was a former Democratic party official, lawyer, and state legislator. General Butler was one of the first Major Generals of Volunteers of the Civil War appointed by Abraham Lincoln. He had gained glory as a Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
state militia general who had anticipated the war and carefully prepared his six militia regiments for the conflict. At the start of hostilities he immediately marched to the relief of Washington, D.C., and despite a lack of orders had occupied and restored order to Baltimore, Maryland. As a reward Butler was made commander of Fortress Monroe, on the Virginia Peninsula. There he gained further political renown as the first to practice confiscation of fugitive slaves as contraband
Contraband
The word contraband, reported in English since 1529, from Medieval French contrebande "a smuggling," denotes any item which, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold....
of war. This practice was made a later policy of war by Congress. Due to these and other astute political maneuvers, Butler had been chosen to command the army expedition to New Orleans. Because of his lack of military experience and military success, many were happy to see him go.
The balance between military power and political support
Butler was one of the most controversial and volatile personalities of the Civil War. He was infamous in New Orleans for his confrontational proclamations and alleged corruption. If these things were all he was capable of, he could never have held the city, or prevented Confederate forces from re-capturing it. The impression had been created by Confederate officials and sympathizers that New Orleans and Louisiana were held by brute military force and terror. The truth is far more complex and subtle. Butler was in fact a political generalPolitical general
A political general is a general officer or other military leader without significant military experience who is given a high position in command for political reasons, such as his own connections or to appease certain political blocs...
, awarded his position by excellent political connections and accomplishments. It was his political expertise that made his position in New Orleans tenable. He in no way had the military force necessary to hold it by force alone. His total military command numbered 15,000 troops. He was never sent reinforcements during the time he commanded in Louisiana. As Butler himself put it, "We were 2,500 men in a city... of 150,000 inhabitants, all hostile, bitter, defiant, explosive, standing literally in a magazine, a spark only needed for destruction."
The United States War Department under Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin M. Stanton
Edwin McMasters Stanton was an American lawyer and politician who served as Secretary of War under the Lincoln Administration during the American Civil War from 1862–1865...
expected Butler to hold eastern Louisiana, the cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans, maintain communications up river to Vicksburg, and support Farragut’s forces for the siege of Vicksburg. In addition the city of New Orleans itself was just as indefensible for the Union as for the Confederates. Surrounded by a fragile network of levees and lower than anything else around it, New Orleans was extremely vulnerable to flooding, bombardment, or insurrection, and generally unhealthy and subject to devastating epidemics. The defense of the city against attacks from Confederate forces depended on an extensive outer ring of fortifications requiring a garrison of thousands of troops. As a conquered territory, Louisiana had a potential for becoming a serious logistical drain on Union forces, and an unsustainable front if contested by well-organized resistance movements. It could also be pretty much counted on that the Confederacy would launch a major counteroffensive to retake New Orleans. As the largest population center of the Confederacy, and commanding formidable industrial and shipping resources, its permanent loss would be politically intolerable.
Building a political power base in New Orleans
The most valuable asset Butler commanded in New Orleans was not his army, but his formidable political heritage. Butler was a Jacksonian Democrat in all senses, and a populist and reformer. He had a great gift for identifying with the issues of the broadest levels of the voters, and turning them to his political advantage. Here the Jacksonian political legacy had come full circle in 47 years, from defending New Orleans from the British, to securing it from secession. Butler's inscription on Jackson’s statue, “The Union Must and Shall be Preserved”, was symbolic of his political identity. The inscription echoed Andrew Jackson's 1830 toast in response to a speech endorsing "nullification", during what was called the Nullification CrisisNullification Crisis
The Nullification Crisis was a sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson created by South Carolina's 1832 Ordinance of Nullification. This ordinance declared by the power of the State that the federal Tariff of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and therefore null and void within...
. Jackson stated, "Our Federal Union! It must be preserved!". This statement defined Jackson's position against any threat to the Union. The spoils system
Spoils system
In the politics of the United States, a spoil system is a practice where a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its voters as a reward for working toward victory, and as an incentive to keep working for the party—as opposed to a system of awarding offices on the...
created by the Democratic party was also part of Butler’s political heritage. Butler believed the advantages of political office should be used to the advantage of friends and supporters, and to suppress political opponents. In general, Butler used these political abilities to play the various factions and interests in New Orleans as a virtuoso conductor would inspire an orchestra, to insure his control and reward Union supporters while isolating and marginalizing hostile pro-confederate factions.
The poorer classes as the key to the city
Butler began his rule of martial law in New Orleans by sentencing anyone calling for cheers for Jeff Davis and Beauregard to three months hard labor at Fort Jackson. He also issued order number 25, which distributed captured Confederate food supplies of beef and sugar in the city to the poor and starving. The Union Blockade and the King CottonKing Cotton
King Cotton was a slogan used by southerners to support secession from the United States by arguing cotton exports would make an independent Confederacy economically prosperous, and—more important—would force Great Britain and France to support the Confederacy because their industrial economy...
embargo had done damage to the port economy, leaving many without work. The value of goods passing through New Orleans had gone from $500 million to $52 million from 1860 to 1862. Butler also raised three regiments of infantry, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Louisiana Native Guards, the Corps D'Afrique, from existing free black militia units and supervised by Gen. Daniel Ullmann. These black units were unusual in having also black officers. They served to both add to his forces, and confront the former ruling classes of the city with the bayonets of their former slaves. Butler also used his commercial contacts in the northeast and Washington to revive commerce in the city, exporting 17,000 bales of cotton to the northeast and re-establishing international trade. He also employed many in support of the Union military, and in cleaning up the city. He expanded the city sewer system, and set up pumps to empty the system into the river. This policy freed the city from the expected summer yellow fever epidemic, and saved the lives of thousands. He extensively taxed the wealthy of the city to set up social programs for the lower classes. The “Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
” aspects of his programs provided a broad base of political support, an extensive informal intelligence and counter-espionage
Counter-Espionage
-Cast:* Warren William as Michael Lanyard* Eric Blore as Jamison* Hillary Brooke as Pamela Hart* Thurston Hall as Insp. Crane* Fred Kelsey as Detective Wesley Dickens* Forrest Tucker as Anton Schugg* Matthew Boulton as Inspector J...
organization, and provided peace and order.
The impact of the occupation on slaves and slavery
Butler had already done the institution of slavery in the Confederacy considerable damage by instituting his “contraband of war” policy while commanding Fort Monroe on the Virginia peninsula. This policy rationalized the retention of slaves fleeing the seceding states by claiming that the Confederate military was using slave labor for military use in the construction of fortifications, moving military supplies, and constructing roads and railroad grades of use to the Confederate army. Slaves within areas of Confederate control rapidly spread the word that Union military forces were not enforcing the Fugitive slave lawsFugitive slave laws
The fugitive slave laws were laws passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state into another state or territory.-Pre-colonial and Colonial eras:...
, and that slaves could find refuge within Union military lines and employment as laborers for the Federal armies. As a result, the use of slaves in the proximity of Union forces became extremely difficult and expensive, since these slaves would flee at first opportunity to Union lines, depriving the Confederate armies of their labor and their former masters of what they regarded as their valuable property. Since the Confederate government was counting on slave labor to offset the greater numbers of Union soldiers, Butler’s innovative policy struck the Confederacy at a strategic level, destroying an asset counted on to win the military struggle for independence. The flight of the slaves in the direction of the Union also diverted the resources of the Confederate military and its government in defense of the plantations and the discipline of their labor forces. The planters of Louisiana even appealed for aid from Federal authorities, to quote one of them, “Our family has owned negroes for generations… we have no one but yourself and Genls Shepley and Butler to protect us against these negroes in a state of insurrection.” The plantations of Jefferson Davis, located in the state of Mississippi on Davis Bend twenty miles downriver from Vicksburg, were also disrupted by the Union invasion. After Davis’s older brother Joseph fled the area with some of the slaves in May 1862, the rest revolted, took possession of the property, and betrayed the location of valuables to Union forces and resisted any efforts by Confederate forces to recapture the area. The slaves in rebellion armed themselves with guns and newspapers, and fought to the death any attempts to infringe upon their new found freedom. This rebellion within a rebellion began to erode Confederate authority within Louisiana the instant Butler’s troops appeared in New Orleans, and as a political fifth column
Fifth column
A fifth column is a group of people who clandestinely undermine a larger group such as a nation from within.-Origin:The term originated with a 1936 radio address by Emilio Mola, a Nationalist General during the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War...
was invaluable to his occupation.
The moment of truth, the Confederate counterstroke
The expected rebel counteroffensive came on August 5 in the form of a naval and army assault on Baton Rouge, led by Maj. Gen. John C. BreckinridgeJohn C. Breckinridge
John Cabell Breckinridge was an American lawyer and politician. He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Kentucky and was the 14th Vice President of the United States , to date the youngest vice president in U.S...
, resulting the Battle of Baton Rouge
Battle of Baton Rouge (1862)
The Battle of Baton Rouge was a ground and naval battle in the American Civil War fought in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, on August 5, 1862. The Union victory halted Confederate attempts to recapture the capital city of Louisiana.-Background:...
. After a hard fought battle, the Confederate forces were driven out of the city, and both Confederate and Union forces withdrew after the battle. The significant aspect of the battle was that it did not result in a popular uprising, nor widespread support for Confederate forces in Louisiana. As a result Rebel forces were not able to mount a sustained campaign to retake New Orleans or the rest of the state. This can be considered a tribute to the Union consensus building wrought by Butler's political manipulation and broad-based political support. Chester G. Hearn summed up the bases of this support: “The huge, illiterate majority – the poorer classes of blacks and whites – would have starved had Butler not fed and employed them, and thousands may have died had his sanitation policies not cleansed the city of disease.”
Reputation vs. results
Butler's generally abrasive style and heavy handed actions did catch up with him. Many of his acts gave great offense, such as the seizure of $800,000 that had been deposited in the office of the DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
and his imprisonment of the French Champagne magnate Charles Heidsieck
Charles Heidsieck
Charles Camille Heidsieck was a 19th-century French Champagne merchant who founded the Champagne firm Charles Heidsieck in 1851. He is credited with popularizing Champagne in the United States and was known as "Champagne Charlie" during his stay...
. Most notorious was Butler's General Order No. 28
Butler's General Order No. 28
Butler's General Order No. 28 was a decree made by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler during the American Civil War. Following the Battle of New Orleans, Butler established himself as military commander of that city on May 1, 1862...
of May 15, issued after many provocations and displays of contempt by women in New Orleans. It stated that if any woman should insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and shall be held liable to be treated as a "woman of the town plying her avocation", i.e., a prostitute. This order provoked protests both in the North
Northern United States
Northern United States, also sometimes the North, may refer to:* A particular grouping of states or regions of the United States of America. The United States Census Bureau divides some of the northernmost United States into the Midwest Region and the Northeast Region...
and the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, and also abroad, particularly in Britain and France, and many considered it the cause of his removal from command of the Department of the Gulf on December 17, 1862. He was also nicknamed "Beast Butler," and "Spoons," for his alleged habit of pilfering the silverware of Southern homes in which he stayed. He became so reviled in the city that merchants began selling chamber pots with his likeness at the bottom.
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...
in General Order 111 as a felon
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
deserving capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
, who if captured should be reserved for execution. Butler's administration did have benefits to the city, which was kept both orderly and healthy. The Butler occupation was probably best summed up by Admiral Farragut, who stated, "They may say what they please about General Butler, but he was the right man in the right place in New Orleans."
Aftermath
On December 14, 1862, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks arrived to take command of the Department of the Gulf. Butler was not made aware of this change until Banks arrived to tell him. Contrary to the general mythos, Butler’s inflammatory reign had little to do with his replacement. Political considerations in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio tipped the balance. The Democratic victories in Illinois and Ohio had alarmed the Lincoln administration on November 4, and a dramatic letter from Governor Oliver P. Morton of Indiana claimed that the states along the Ohio had more in common with the southern states than with New England, and would leave the Union if the Mississippi were not re-opened to trade. These new considerations reinforced the idea by Secretary of State William H. SewardWilliam H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
, (an enemy of Butler’s) that an invasion of Texas would be favorably received by a pro-union group of German American cotton farmers living there. This idea was championed by Banks, a New England political general eager to send cotton to North Eastern mills. Banks would start the siege of Port Hudson
Siege of Port Hudson
The Siege of Port Hudson occurred from May 22 to July 9, 1863, when Union Army troops assaulted and then surrounded the Mississippi River town of Port Hudson, Louisiana, during the American Civil War....
, and on its successful conclusion, begin the Red River Campaign
Red River Campaign
The Red River Campaign or Red River Expedition consisted of a series of battles fought along the Red River in Louisiana during the American Civil War from March 10 to May 22, 1864. The campaign was a Union initiative, fought between approximately 30,000 Union troops under the command of Maj. Gen....
in pursuit of Texan cotton. The Red River expedition would prove to be a costly failure, and result in more wanton destruction and looting than the Butler occupation.