months passed, the war raged at a distance from the Gulf, and the Confederate government failed to appreciate that New Orleans was the emporium of the South, the key of the great highway of the Mississippi Valley. If New Orleans were lost, would it be possible to hold the Mississippi? And if the control of the river were lost, could the Confederacy maintain itself?

The defences of New Orleans at this time consisted of some three thousand men under General Mansfield L. Lovell, encamped near the city, and some weak batteries at the Rigolets, Barataria Bay, and other inlets; but the safety of the city rested chiefly upon two strong forts, Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, about thirty miles above the mouth of the Mississippi. Above these forts, which had together one hundred guns, were eighteen war-vessels, and below was an obstruction of mastless vessels chained across the channel. In each fort were nearly seven hundred men. While the exigencies or the want of foresight of the Confederate government left the city inadequately protected, the Federal government, like the British government in 1814, saw the immense importance of capturing the southern metropolis, and expeditions were set on foot with that end in view during the spring of 1862. One was to come down the Mississippi and another was to ascend the river and meet it. No more important naval operation was undertaken during the war, and no more capable officer could have been placed Dostie . .

21, 1861: "Dr. A. P. wishes to return to New York under the Alien Law. Allow him to pass through the Confederate States." Dostie writes that he left in August, 1861, and that before he left "a reign of terror was inaugurated; liberty of speech was proscribed. He was considered a bold and rash man who still advocated the cause of his country. . . . My assistant, Dr. Metcalf, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, was incarcerated in a loathsome prison as early as last April," for expressing Union sentiments. Reed, Life of Dostie, pp. 21-30. Dostie returned to New Orleans after the capture of the city, when it was once more safe for him, and played an important part as an incendiary orator on the radical side. He was killed in the riot of 1866.

C. P. Dimitry told the author that it was currently reported in New Orleans that Hannibal Hamlin was a negro. A merchant who offered for sale medals with likenesses of Lincoln and Hamlin was nearly mobbed. Bob Ogden saved him.

in charge of the principal one of these two expeditions than David G. Farragut.

It was on the 24th of April, 1862, that Farragut, having broken down the obstruction below, succeeded in running the gauntlet of forts and fleet alike. Though the feat was accomplished during the night, the peril of the passage is shown by the fact that his own flagship, the Hartford, was struck thirty-five times in hull and rigging, and was at one time set on fire by the burning rafts sent down by the Confederates. But nothing could check the onward sweep of the Federal fleet; within an hour the forts were passed amid a hail of shot and shell, the protecting fleet was scattered, and soon New Orleans lay at the mercy of the victorious Farragut. It is not proposed to describe the exciting scenes which followed the arrival of the Federal fleet and the withdrawal of Lovell. Angry and defiant at first, the city could do nothing but submit. A portion of Farragut's fleet, proceeding up the Mississippi, forced Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, to surrender, and running the gauntlet of the batteries at Vicksburg, joined the Federal fleet which was descending the river. An attempt of the Confederates to recapture Baton Rouge ended in failure. Port Hudson, however, was fortified and held until the fall of Vicksburg in July, 1863. With the surrender of Vicksburg the Mississippi "flowed unvexed to the sea." It is hard to estimate the injury which this brilliant exploit inflicted upon the Confederate cause. New Orleans served as a point of departure throughout the war for the military expeditions fitted out by the Federals in the far South. The fatal weakness of the Confederacy is nowhere so clearly shown as in its inability to recapture this city.

In the meantime, the so-called Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy, consisting of Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and some of the territories, had been put under the charge of the Confederate Lieutenant-General E. Kirby Smith, in March, 1863. Under him was General Richard Taylor, son of General Zachary Taylor. General Taylor carried on a fairly successful campaign against the

Federals in southwestern Louisiana before the fall of Vicksburg, and even after that disaster he did not despair of holding western Louisiana. It was in the spring of 1864 that the Federals made up their minds to lead a strong force up the Red River, and, crushing all opposition, to march into Texas. This force consisted of seventeen gun-boats under Commander D. D. Porter, which ascended the Red River and protected 10,000 men under General A. J. Smith. Another Federal army under General Franklin, numbering 18,000 men, marched up the Teche to join General Smith at Alexandria. The commander-in-chief of this powerful army was General N. P. Banks, whom, if he was not a skillful general, we shall find to be a most astute politician.1

Taylor fell back before this strong force, but finally made a stand at Mansfield, April 8, 1864. Here his army consisted of 5000 horse, 3300 infantry, and 500 artillerymen. The first division of Banks's army that arrived on the scene consisted of 5000 men, but others came up rapidly. The Confederates succeeded in defeating each division as it arrived, and captured " 2,500 prisoners, 20 pieces of artillery, several stands of colors, many thousands of small arms, and 250 wagons." On the following day, when the Federals. occupied a strong position at Pleasant Hill with 18,000 men, another battle was fought. Both sides claimed a victory, but at nightfall the Confederates seem to have been in possession of the field, and the account of Admiral Porter declares that the whole expedition was for the Federals a complete failure. In any case, Banks retired to Alexandria, and finally crossed the Atchafalaya on May 20. Here the Confederates gave up the pursuit. There was no more fighting in Louisiana, but at the end of 1864 the Confederates were still so strong that there were three fourths of the State to which it was not safe for the Federals to send military supplies. Four months later General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, and the war was over.

1 Annual Cyclopaedia, 1864, subject "Army Operations,” p. 51. General Taylor's report. The Annual Cyclopaedia, 1864, gives Banks's force as 8000 and his loss as 2000 killed, wounded and missing. Subject "Army Operations," p. 53.

CHAPTER II.

BUTLER'S ADMINISTRATION.

From May I to December 14, 1862, New Orleans was under the control of General B. F. Butler, with a force of 15,000 men.1 It was a comparatively short period, but Butler in this brief time contrived to make himself the best hated man in the South; and by one particular act he even won notoriety for himself in the English Parliament. It was, of course, a difficult task to govern wisely and tactfully a great city like New Orleans, which had been occupied by a victorious army, and which was inhabited by an exasperated people. In his civil as well as in his political administration Butler instituted the system of "thorough" which made Lord Strafford so unpopular in the reign of Charles I. In fact, his political administration, in its unbending severity and its total disregard of the feelings of those whom the chance of war had placed in his power, reflects methods of military occupation which had been obsolete for several centuries.

His civil administration has met with much encomium. It is claimed for him that he warded off starvation from the poorer classes, cleaned the city thoroughly, established strict quarantine laws, and kept out the dreaded yellow

1In a speech at the North, Butler said he had 2500 soldiers to support him; so he does not seem to have kept the 15,000 in the city. Parton says Butler had an inadequate force to defend the city against an attack because of the strong garrisons necessary at Ship Island, Fort Jackson, Fort St. Philip, Baton Rouge, posts on the lake, and elsewhere. Butler in New Orleans, p. 436. Butler was major-general commanding the Department of the Gulf, with headquarters at New Orleans, while Major-afterwards GeneralGeorge Foster Shepley, who was appointed military governor of Louisiana in June, 1862, and remained such until Hahn was elected, was evidently under Butler.

2

He assessed rebels to aid the poor, and collected $340,000. In his farewell address he says he spent about a million which he had collected-doubtless by confiscation.

fever. It is only proper, however, to state that great numbers of the inhabitants were absent in war, or as refugees, and that the diminution of traffic in the city made the problem of cleanliness far easier than ever before; while the embargo on foreign trade during his administration simplified greatly the problem of keeping out the fever. There were two reported deaths under Butler, but who saved New Orleans in 1861 when there was not one reported death or case, and when blockaded New Orleans was occupied by Lovell and his very many non-immune Confederate soldiers, who enforced no preventives of any kind?2 Moreover, it has been noted by a competent critic that when Butler took charge, "there had been no epidemic of yellow fever for four years. The year of his domination was actually less healthy than the year before, its death-rate being thirty-six, against thirty-four for 1861." Can it be that the cleansing of New Orleans is inimical to the health of its people? However, Marion Southwood notes the fact that there was a large number of unacclimated persons in New Orleans in 1862, and from inability to get away a greater proportion of the population than usual remained through the summer; she also says Butler "was the best scavenger we ever had among us."4

But "thorough" in civil administration did not satisfy Butler. Coarse by nature, and lacking totally the tact which distinguished his successor, General Banks, he proceeded to exercise a petty tyranny in the suppression of all disloyalty of word or act. Although he permitted the municipal authorities of New Orleans to continue their functions for a while under strict surveillance, the city was practically under martial law. The newspapers which had been too active in

1 Butler said there was but one reported case of yellow fever in New Orleans in 1862; "its mortality returns show it to be the most healthy city in the United States." Parton, Butler in New Orleans, p. 401.

66

• Chaillé, Yellow Fever," New Orleans Med. and Surg. Jour., July, 1870, pp. 563-598.

3 Cable, Creoles of Louisiana, p. 306.

* Southwood, Beauty and Booty, p. 182.