The Civil War in New Orleans

By James Michael Larkin LtCol

A CITY CLOTHED IN SACKCLOTH & ASHES

Book Two of The Civil War and New Orleans takes a look at the events and people during the most tumultuous period of the war: Benjamin Franklin Butler's (Beast Butler) tenure as Commander of the Army of the Gulf, May to December 1862. And it is more than the hanging of William Mumford or the issuing of the "Women's Order." During this period, the Federal occupation of the city began, hunger became common, the enslaved were liberated and a good many skirmishes were fought in places like Boutte, Manchac, Des Allemands, Labadieville and St. Charles Courthouse. It was when the reality of the occupation took hold and ordinary people had to come to grips with life under what many considered a foreign occupier. Some resisted and paid the price, many others acquiesced and made the best of the situation, the majority simply went about their lives as best they could while praying for the thousands of husbands, sons and fathers were fighting far away. For a great many, those prayers would be unfulfilled. The war began as a grand illusion of noble ideals and bloodless victories. What the people in the region came to realize was privation and loss on a scale most had never faced before. Yet, during this same period, many tasted freedom for the first time a new civil order was being created. Men and women who supported the Union came out of the shadows and the repression that arose after secession. Many recent immigrants showed their patriotism not by joining the Confederate ranks but chose instead the blue of the Federal cause. It was also during this period that a trickle of black men began to enlist in the US Army and, after many starts and stops, that trickle would turn into a rampaging torrent of eager recruits as the war progressed. But it is also stories of individuals like Cassie Sparks, a well-to-do lady who lived near a Union encampment in what is now Westwego. Mrs Sparks tended Union soldiers who were sick and nursed many back to health while she prayed that her own two sons, then fighting for the Confederacy, would be safe. What she had no way of knowing was one of her sons was already dead and other would die before the war ended. The Civil War and New Orleans tells the stories of the men and women, black and white, free and enslaved, the Yankees and Rebels who lived through this period and left us a legacy we are still dealing with today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FQH5DS1M
• ISBN13: 9798262110209
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 468 Pages
• Weight: 1.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.2"