New Orleans

Between April 25 and May 1, 1862, Union forces seized New Orleans in what became a pivotal moment of the American Civil War, opening the way for eventual control of the Mississippi River. After pushing past the defenses at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, federal troops met no further resistance when they moved into the city itself.

The military governor appointed by the U.S. Army provoked bitter feelings among the population, and his handling of the occupation stirred lasting resentment. Losing its largest city dealt the Confederacy a serious blow, one whose significance registered well beyond American shores. The episode also stunned a number of Confederate generals, who had braced for an assault coming from the north rather than one launched from the Gulf of Mexico.

War and battle

When Lincoln won the presidency in 1860, Governor Thomas Overton Moore moved to block any attempt to turn New Orleans into a "free city," a neutral zone untouched by the coming conflict. Moore, a committed Democrat, pushed Louisiana toward a secession convention, though that gathering spoke for only five percent of the state's population. Before the convention even met, on January 8, 1861, Moore directed the state militia to take the Federal arsenal at Baton Rouge and to occupy a string of Federal defenses: Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, which guarded the river approach to New Orleans, Fort Pike at the mouth of Lake Pontchartrain, the New Orleans Barracks just south of the city, and Fort Macomb, positioned at Chef Menteur Pass. As companies of soldiers formed across the state, delegates finally voted, 113 to 17,

Aftermath

On December 14, 1862, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks showed up to assume command of the Department of the Gulf, and Butler learned of his own removal only when Banks broke the news to him in person. It would be a mistake to assume, as many have, that Butler's fiery conduct as commander drove this decision. Instead, the scales were tipped by political currents running through Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Democratic wins in Illinois and Ohio on November 4 had rattled Lincoln's administration.

These developments lent fresh weight to a notion already held by Secretary of State William H. Seward, who counted himself among Butler's political rivals: that a move into Texas would be welcomed by German American cotton growers there who favored the union. Banks, a political general from New England hungry to funnel cotton toward mills in the Northeast, took up this cause. He went on to besiege Port Hudson, and once that effort succeeded, he launched the Red River Campaign to chase after Texan cotton. That expedition turned into an expensive disaster, leaving behind even greater destruction and plunder than Butler's occupation had caused.