Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Southern Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, 1862–1863 93
opinion “that every State that has been admitted as a slave State into the Union
since the adoption of the Constitution, has been admitted in direct violation of
that Constitution.” He traced the political history of slavery at length, including
events such as the annexation of Texas; inserted three paragraphs in which
he likened the abolition of slavery to the French Revolution’s overthrow of the
Catholic Church; and ended with a ringing declaration: “Our motto and our
standard shall be, here and everywhere, and on all occasions, Free Labor and
Workingmen’s Rights.” When the naval flag officer commanding the West Gulf
Blockading Squadron refused Phelps a vessel to bear his proclamation to the
mainland, the general had to content himself with releasing it through the New
York newspapers. 9
Phelps’ address to Gulf Coast residents was premature as far as the administration’s
policy toward slavery went. Butler disavowed it as soon as he
learned of it. A New York Times editorial predicted that Phelps and his statement
would be “subjected to severe criticism” and was “likely to do the Union
cause more harm than good.” Whatever the official reaction, it did not take long
for word of the federal presence to circulate among black people on the mainland.
By the first week of February 1862, Phelps was able to report that some
two dozen escaped slaves had made their way to Ship Island in small boats.
Federal quartermasters put them to work unloading cargo. 10
In late February, the War Department finally issued orders to Butler for
the capture of New Orleans. At Ship Island on 10 April, the general embarked
eight infantry regiments and three batteries of artillery to accompany Flag
Officer David G. Farragut’s fleet toward the mouth of the Mississippi River.
When six days of bombardment failed to reduce the two forts that guarded the
lower river, Farragut decided to cut the boom with which the Confederates had
blocked the channel and to run his vessels past the forts and up the river to New
Orleans. This he did. During the last week of April, most Confederate troops
withdrew from the city, leaving the mayor to offer its surrender. Once again,
the Native Guards returned to their homes. 11
Leaving a few troops to occupy the forts, Butler began to land the bulk
of his force at New Orleans on 1 May. Across the river from the city, he occupied
the town of Algiers, the terminus of the New Orleans, Opelousas, and
Great Western Railroad. Within the week, his troops had run a train as far as
Brashear City, some eighty miles to the west, and were using the line’s rolling
stock to bring provisions from the country to New Orleans, where food was in
short supply. During his first day ashore, Butler also issued a proclamation that
condemned the rebellion, defined acceptable public behavior, and set forth pro-
9 Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, 30 vols.
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1894–1922), ser. 1, 17: 17–21 (hereafter cited as
ORN); New York Tribune, 17 December 1861. The same ship that bore the Tribune correspondent’s
dispatch carried letters from New York Times and New York Herald reporters. Those papers printed
the news of Phelps’ proclamation on the same day.
10 OR, ser. 1, 6: 465, 680; New York Times, 17 December 1861 (quotation).
11 OR, ser. 1, 6: 694–95, 705–06; ORN, ser. 1, 18: 134–39, 148. A succinct description of
the boom and its construction is in John D. Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana (Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1963), p. 66; on pp. 96–102, Winters describes the chaotic last
week of April in New Orleans.