Capture of New Orleans
In 1860, New Orleans held a population of 168,675 people. This number made it larger than the four next-largest Southern cities combined. The streets buzzed with French-speaking Creoles who had lived there for generations. Refugees from Saint Domingue and the Haitian Revolution added to the mix. Enslaved and free Blacks of African and mixed descent formed a significant portion of the community. Recent Irish and German immigrants also walked these same sidewalks.
The city served as a major port near the mouth of the Mississippi River at the Gulf Coast. Steamboats moved upstream against the strong current of the river. Two-way trade became possible between New Orleans and cities in the interior river network of the Upper South and Midwest. Cotton became a valuable export product after the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. Trade worth 500 million dollars passed through the city that year.
New Orleans was one of the greatest ports in the world by 1860. It boasted 33 different steamship lines. The electrical telegraph arrived in 1848. A railroad connected New Orleans to Canton, Mississippi, adding another dimension to local transportation. The price of prime field hands rose 21 percent in 1848 due to domestic slave trade growth.
Confederate leaders made a tardy effort to muster forces at the river barrier. Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip stood above the Head of Passes approximately 10 miles downriver below New Orleans. These masonry forts held Confederate artillery. Union ships were elevated above the city when high water existed outside the levees. They could fire down into the streets and buildings below.
Major General Mansfield Lovell commanded Department 1, Louisiana. He faced only three thousand militiamen with sundry military supplies and shotguns once the defense was breached. Most artillery, ammunition, troops, and vessels committed to the Jackson/St. Phillips position left the inner ring vulnerable. The inner fortifications at Chalmette were intended only to resist ground troops. Few gun batteries aimed toward the river.
Lovell loaded his troops aboard the New Orleans, Jackson, and Great Northern railroad. He sent them to Camp Moore 35 miles north. All artillery and munitions went to Vicksburg. Military stores, ships, and warehouses burned. Thousands of bales of cotton threw themselves into the river as anything useful to the Union.
Flag Officer David G. Farragut undertook this enterprise in mid-January 1862 with his West Gulf Blockading Squadron. From April 18 to 28, he bombarded and fought past these forts. Thirteen of his fleet's ships made it upriver on April 24. The Confederate defenses proved defective according to historian Allan Nevins. Both naval and military auxiliaries remained weak for the Southerners.
At 2:00 p.m. on April 25, Admiral Farragut sent Captain Bailey to accept the surrender of the city. Armed mobs within the city defied the Union officers and marines sent to city hall. General Lovell and Mayor Monroe refused to surrender the city. William B. Mumford pulled down a Union flag raised over the former U.S. mint by marines of the 2nd U.S. Infantry.
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 removed the Louisiana State flag from City Hall. By May 2, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward declared New Orleans recovered.
On the 1st of May 1862, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler occupied the city with an army of 5,000 men. He faced no resistance. Butler was a former Democratic party official, lawyer, and state legislator. He became one of the first Major Generals of Volunteers appointed by Abraham Lincoln. His total military command numbered 15,000 troops during his time in Louisiana between May and December 1862.
Butler stated that they were 2,500 men in a city of 150,000 inhabitants who were all hostile, bitter, defiant, and explosive. They stood literally in a magazine where a spark only needed for destruction. His methods of preserving order appeared radical and totalitarian even in the North and Europe. The impression had been created by Confederate officials and sympathizers that New Orleans and Louisiana were held by brute military force and terror.
He issued Order Number 25 which distributed captured Confederate food supplies of beef and sugar to the poor and starving. The Union blockade and King Cotton embargo left many without work. The value of goods passing through New Orleans dropped from $500 million to $52 million during the period 1860 to 1862.
Residents of New Orleans did not accept the Union occupation very well. Butler's troops faced all manner of verbal and physically symbolic insults from women. Chamber pots dumped upon them became common. Women crossed streets or left streetcars to avoid a Union soldier. After two weeks of occupation, Butler had enough.
He issued General Order No. 28 on May 15. It instructed Union soldiers to treat any woman who offended a soldier as a woman of the town plying her avocation. Southern women were highly offended by the order. He was heavily criticized both domestically and overseas. The British House of Lords called it a most heinous proclamation. The Earl of Carnarvon proclaimed imprisonment of women more intolerable tyranny than any civilized country in our day has been subjected to.
Butler tried to defend his command in a letter to the Boston Journal. He claimed the devil had entered the hearts of the women of New Orleans to stir up strife. Many thought the language too ambiguous. They feared Union troops would treat New Orleans women like prostitutes regarding soliciting sex. His inflammatory order caused significant public relations problems for the Union.
Butler raised three regiments of infantry starting September 27. He formed the 1st and 2nd regiments and a 3rd by November from existing free black militia units. This Corps D'Afrique totaled 3,122 soldiers and officers. Gen. Daniel Ullmann supervised them. They served both to add to his forces and confront former ruling classes with bayonets of those they had formerly enslaved.
Enslaved people within areas of Confederate control rapidly spread word that Union military forces did not enforce fugitive slave laws. Those fleeing slavery found refuge within Union military lines as laborers for the Union armies. Plantations of Jefferson Davis located on Davis Bend downriver from Vicksburg disrupted by the invasion. After Davis' older brother Joseph fled with some enslaved laborers in May 1862, the rest revolted.
The rebelling laborers armed themselves with guns and newspapers. They fought to death any attempts to infringe upon their newfound freedom. This rebellion began to erode Confederate authority within Louisiana the instant Butler's troops appeared. It acted as a political fifth column invaluable to his occupation.
On the 14th of December 1862, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks arrived to take command of the Department of the Gulf. Butler was not made aware until Banks told him. Democratic victories in Illinois and Ohio on November 4 alarmed the Lincoln administration. Political considerations tipped the balance against Butler.
Secretary of State William H. Seward championed an invasion of Texas favorably received by pro-union German American cotton farmers. Banks undertook the siege of Port Hudson and began the Red River Campaign in pursuit of Texan cotton. The expedition proved costly failure resulting in more wanton destruction than the Butler occupation.
Butler became known as Beast Butler for his abrasive style. He executed William B. Mumford on June 7 who had torn down a U.S. flag placed by Farragut. Confederate President Jefferson Davis denounced Butler in General Order 111 as a felon deserving capital punishment. Butler remained so reviled that merchants sold chamber pots with his likeness at the bottom.
Common questions
What was the population of New Orleans in 1860?
New Orleans held a population of 168,675 people in 1860. This number made it larger than the four next-largest Southern cities combined.
When did Union forces capture New Orleans during the Civil War?
Union ships moved upriver on April 24 and Admiral Farragut sent Captain Bailey to accept the surrender at 2:00 p.m. on April 25. Major General Benjamin Butler occupied the city with an army of 5,000 men on the 1st of May 1862.
Who commanded Confederate defenses at Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip?
Major General Mansfield Lovell commanded Department 1, Louisiana and faced only three thousand militiamen when the defense was breached. Most artillery, ammunition, troops, and vessels committed to the Jackson and St. Phillips position left the inner ring vulnerable.
Why did General Benjamin Butler issue General Order No. 28 on May 15?
Butler issued General Order No. 28 after two weeks of occupation because residents of New Orleans did not accept the Union occupation very well. The order instructed Union soldiers to treat any woman who offended a soldier as a woman of the town plying her avocation.
What happened to cotton trade value in New Orleans between 1860 and 1862?
The value of goods passing through New Orleans dropped from 500 million dollars to 52 million dollars during the period 1860 to 1862. Cotton became a valuable export product after the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 but trade worth 500 million dollars passed through the city that year before the war disrupted it.
All sources
16 references cited across the entry
- 2bookWhat hath God Wrought, The Transformation of America, 1815–1848Daniel W. Howe — Oxford University Press, Inc. — 2007
- 3bookThe Capture of New Orleans 1862Chester G. Hearn — Louisiana State University Press — 1995
- 4bookThe Civil War, A Narrative, Fort Sumter to PerryvilleShelby Foote — Vintage Books — 1986
- 5bookAppletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862D. Appleton & Company — 1863
- 6journal'Butler's Rotten Breath of Calumny': Major General Benjamin F. Butler and the Censure of the Seventh Vermont Infantry regimentJeffrey D. Marshall — Vermont History 72 (Winter/Spring) — 2004
- 7bookConfederate Reckoning, Power and Politics in the Civil War SouthStephanie McCurry — Harvard University Press — 2010
- 8bookOccupied Women: Gender, Military Occupation, and the American Civil WarAlecia P. Long — Louisiana State University — 2009
- 10bookWhen the Devil Came Down to Dixie: Ben Butler in New OrleansChester G. Hearn — Louisiana State University — 1997
- 11newsOur Affairs in England: Gen. Butler's Proclamation in the House of Lords MediationJune 27, 1862
- 12journalGeneral ButlerOctober 18, 1862
- 13newsGen. Butler Defends the Woman Order.1862-07-16
- 14bookDivided Houses: Gender and the Civil WarGeorge Rable — Oxford University Press — 1992
- 15bookThe Land They Fought For, The Story of the South as the Confederacy, 1832–1865Clifford Dowdey — Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY — 1955
- 16bookRed River Campaign, Politics & Cotton in the Civil WarLudwell H. Johnson — Kent State University Press — 1993