Civil War New Orleans: Union Occupation, Southern Defiance, and the Fight for Reconstruction

On April 25, 1862, New Orleans looked toward the Mississippi River and saw defeat coming upriver.

Union ships had forced their way past the forts below the city and brought the Confederacy’s greatest port under Federal guns. New Orleans had been told to trust Forts Jackson and St. Philip. Instead, the river that made the city rich became the road of conquest.

Civil War New Orleans tells the story of a city caught between Confederate pride and Union power. It follows New Orleans from secession and the panic on the levee to Benjamin F. Butler’s harsh military rule, the execution of William B. Mumford, General Order No. 28, and life under occupation.

But occupation was only the beginning. As slavery weakened and Federal power reshaped the city, Black soldiers, free people of color, formerly enslaved people, Unionists, Southern Democrats, merchants, clergy, editors, and political leaders struggled over what New Orleans would become. From the Louisiana Native Guards, the New Orleans Massacre of 1866, and the Battle of Liberty Place, the city became a battleground over emancipation and Reconstruction.

This is the story of a city conquered but never settled. Its buildings survived, but its politics, labor system, racial order, and civic life were thrown into crisis. New Orleans changed hands in 1862, but the fight over its future lasted far longer than the war itself.