| Louisiana | |
|---|---|
.png) Map of the Confederate States | |
| Capital | Shreveport |
| Largest city | New Orleans |
| Admitted to the Confederacy | March 21, 1861 (3rd) |
| Population |
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| Forces supplied | |
| Governor | Thomas Moore Henry Allen |
| Lieutenant Governor | |
| Senators | |
| Representatives | List |
| Restored to the Union | July 9, 1868 |
| History of Louisiana |
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 United States portal |
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| Confederate States in the American Civil War |
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| Dual governments |
| Territory |
| Allied tribes in Indian Territory |
Louisiana was a dominant population center in the southwest of theConfederate States of America, controlling the wealthy trade center ofNew Orleans, and contributing theFrench Creole andCajun populations to the demographic composition of a predominantly Anglo-American country. In theantebellum period, Louisiana was aslave state, where enslavedAfrican Americans had comprised the majority of the population during the eighteenth-centuryFrench andSpanish dominations. By the time theUnited States acquired the territory (1803) andLouisiana became astate (1812), the institution ofslavery was entrenched. By 1860, 47% of the state's population were enslaved, though the state also had one of the largest free black populations in theUnited States. Much of thewhite population, particularly in the cities, supported slavery, while pockets of support for the U.S. and itsgovernment existed in the more rural areas.
Louisiana declared that it hadseceded from theUnion on January 26, 1861.Civil-War era New Orleans, the largest city inthe South, was strategically important as aport city due to its southernmost location on theMississippi River and its access to theGulf of Mexico. TheU.S. War Department early on planned for its capture. The city was taken byU.S. Army forces on April 25, 1862. Because a large part of the population had Union sympathies (or compatible commercial interests), the U.S. government took the unusual step of designating the areas of Louisiana then underU.S. control as a state within theUnion, with its own elected representatives to theU.S. Congress. For the latter part of the war, both theU.S. and theConfederacy recognized their own distinctLouisiana governors.[4]: 1–9 Similarly, New Orleans and 13 named parishes of the state were exempted from theEmancipation Proclamation, which applied exclusively to states in rebellion against the Union.[5]
On January 8, 1861, Louisiana GovernorThomas Overton Moore ordered the Louisiana militia to occupy theU.S. arsenal atBaton Rouge and the U.S. forts guarding New Orleans, Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip. A wealthyplanter andslave holder, Moore acted aggressively to engineer the secession of Louisiana from the Union by a convention on January 23. Only five percent of the public were represented in the convention, and the state's military actions were ordered before secession had been established—in defiance of the state constitution, which called for a popular referendum to establish a convention. Moore attempted to justify these actions, saying: "I do not think it comports with the honor and self-respect of Louisiana as a slave-holding state to live under the government of a Black Republican president", using an epithet for Republicans used by many Democrats at the time.
The strategies advanced to defend Louisiana and the otherGulf states of the Confederacy were first, the idea ofKing Cotton; that an unofficial embargo of cotton to Europe would force Britain to use its navy to intervene in protecting the newConfederacy. The second was aprivateer fleet established by the issue of letters ofmarque and reprisal by PresidentJefferson Davis, which would sweep the sea clear of U.S. naval and commercial ships, and at the same time sustain Louisiana's boomingport economy. The third was a reliance on the ring of pre-war masonry forts of theThird System of American coastal defense, combined with a fleet of revolutionary newironclads, to safeguard themouth of theMississippi from the U.S. Navy. All of these strategies were failures.[7]
In March 1861, George Williamson, the Louisianan state commissioner, addressed the Texan secession convention, where he called upon the slave states of the U.S. to declare secession from the Union in order to continue practicing slavery:
With the social balance wheel of slavery to regulate its machinery, we may fondly indulge the hope that our Southern government will be perpetual... Louisiana looks to the formation of a Southern confederacy to preserve the blessings of African slavery...
— George Williamson, speech to the Texan secession convention (March 1861).[8]
One Louisianan artillery soldier gave his reasons for fighting for the Confederacy, stating that "I never want to see the day when a negro is put on an equality with a white person. There is too many free niggers ... now to suit me, let alone having four millions."[9]
The Union's response to Moore's leveraged secession was embodied in U.S. PresidentAbraham Lincoln's realization that theMississippi River was the "backbone of the Rebellion." If control of the river were accomplished, the largest city in the Confederacy would be taken back for theUnion, and the Confederacy would be split in half. Lincoln moved rapidly to back AdmiralDavid Dixon Porter's idea of a naval advance up the river to both capture New Orleans and maintain Lincoln's political support; by supplying cotton to northern textile manufacturers and renewing trade and exports from the port of New Orleans. The U.S. Navy would become both a formidable invasion force and a means of transporting Union forces, along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. This strategic vision would prove victorious in Louisiana.[11][12]: 10–78
A number of notable leaders were associated with Louisiana during theCivil War, including some of theConfederate army's senior ranking generals, as well as several men who ledbrigades anddivisions. Antebellum Louisiana residentsP.G.T. Beauregard,Braxton Bragg, andRichard Taylor all commanded significant independent armies during the war. Taylor's forces were among the last active Confederate armies in the field when the war closed.[13] Union generalWilliam Tecumseh Sherman was president of the Louisiana Military Academy (nowLSU) at the start of the war.
Henry Watkins Allen led a brigade during the middle of the war before becoming the Confederate Governor of Louisiana from 1864 to 1865.Randall L. Gibson, another competent brigade commander, became apostbellumU.S. Senator as a Democrat. Other brigadiers of note includedAlfred Mouton (killed at theBattle of Mansfield),Harry T. Hays,Chatham Roberdeau Wheat (commander of the celebrated "Louisiana Tigers" of theArmy of Northern Virginia), andFrancis T. Nicholls (commander of the "Pelican Brigade" until he lost his left foot atChancellorsville).St. John Lidell was a prominent brigade commander in theArmy of Tennessee.[14]: 166 [15]
Henry Gray, a wealthy plantation owner fromBienville Parish, was a brigadier general under Richard Taylor before being elected to theSecond Confederate Congress late in the war.Leroy A. Stafford was among a handful of Louisiana generals to be killed during the war.Albert Gallatin Blanchard was a rarity—a Confederate general born inMassachusetts.
Governor Thomas Overton Moore, came held office from 1860 through early 1864. When war erupted, he unsuccessfully lobbied the Confederate government inRichmond for a strong defense of New Orleans. Two days before the city surrendered in April 1862, Moore and the legislature abandonedBaton Rouge as the state capital, relocating toOpelousas in May. Thomas Moore organized military resistance at the state level, ordered the burning ofcotton, cessation of trade with the Union forces, and heavily recruited troops for the statemilitia.[16]
Battles in Louisiana tended to be concentrated along the major waterways, like theRed River Campaign.
Following the end of the Civil War, Louisiana was part of theFifth Military District.
After meeting the requirements ofReconstruction, including ratifying amendments to theUS Constitution to abolish slavery and grant citizenship to former slaves, Louisiana's representatives were readmitted to Congress. The state was fully restored to the United States on July 9, 1868.
As part of theCompromise of 1877, under which Southern Democrats acknowledgedRepublicanRutherford B. Hayes as president, there was the understanding that the Republicans would meet certain demands. One affecting Louisiana was the removal of all U.S. military forces from the formerConfederate states.[17] At the time, U.S. troops remained in onlyLouisiana,South Carolina, andFlorida, but the Compromise saw their complete withdrawal from the region.
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| Preceded by | List of C.S. states by date of admission to the Confederacy RatifiedConstitution on March 21, 1861 (3rd) | Succeeded by |
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