(C) Verite News New Orleans
This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
April 25, 1862: Union forces capture New Orleans [1]
['J Brionne Helaire', 'More J Brionne Helaire', 'College Fellow']
Date: 2023-04-25
On April 25, 1862, New Orleans fell to the Union troops barely a year into the American Civil War, making it the first city in the Confederacy to be captured.
New Orleans, the most populous city in the Confederacy, was a major manufacturing and distribution center, a key to supplying the Confederate forces with clothing, knapsacks, tenting and tinware. Workers in the city’s shipyards also constructed naval vessels for the rebellion.
But on the evening of April 24, 1862, Union Admiral David G. Farragut led a fleet of 43 ships into the lower Mississippi River against the rebel fortifications at Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The military leaders of Louisiana had created chain blockades from timber in hopes of halting the Union’s forces. But due to the damage from recent storms, the chains were weak and 17 of Farragut’s ships were able to plow through the blockade.
Forts Jackson and St. Philip were captured and Confederate Gen. Mansfield Lovell surrendered and withdrew his 3,000 troops.
The city would be under Union control within the week.
On April 26, Farragut raised the Union flag over the New Orleans branch of the United States Mint, “making New Orleans the first Confederate city captured and occupied by Union troops.”
The Louisiana State Museum notes that on April 29, Farragut marched to city hall to take formal possession of the city and on May 1, Gen. Benjamin F. Butler arrived with 1,400 troops to take military control of New Orleans.
Union occupation of New Orleans not only put the North in charge of a crucial supply center, it also gave Union forces control of the lower Mississippi River valley, which would eventually seal the fate of the seceding states.
It would take another three years of brutal fighting before the Confederate states would surrender, opening the way for the restoration of the Union and the end of slavery.
Join Verite’s Mailing List | Get the news that matters to you
Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Close window X Republish this article This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Unless otherwise noted, you can republish most of Verite’s stories for free under a Creative Commons license. For digital publications: Look for the “Republish This Story” button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @VeriteNewsNola @VeriteNewsNola For print publications: You have to credit Verite. We prefer “Author Name, Verite News” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Verite News” and include our website, veritenews.org
You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
You cannot republish our photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Tim Morris
Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @VeriteNewsNola on Facebook @VeriteNewsNola on Twitter. If you have any other questions, contact managing editor Tim Morris. April 25, 1862: Union forces capture New Orleans
April 25, 1862: Union forces capture New Orleans
by J’Brionne Helaire, Verite April 25, 2023
On April 25, 1862, New Orleans fell to the Union troops barely a year into the American Civil War, making it the first city in the Confederacy to be captured.
New Orleans, the most populous city in the Confederacy, was a major manufacturing and distribution center, a key to supplying the Confederate forces with clothing, knapsacks, tenting and tinware. Workers in the city’s shipyards also constructed naval vessels for the rebellion.
But on the evening of April 24, 1862, Union Admiral David G. Farragut led a fleet of 43 ships into the lower Mississippi River against the rebel fortifications at Forts Jackson and St. Philip. The military leaders of Louisiana had created chain blockades from timber in hopes of halting the Union’s forces. But due to the damage from recent storms, the chains were weak and 17 of Farragut’s ships were able to plow through the blockade.
Forts Jackson and St. Philip were captured and Confederate Gen. Mansfield Lovell surrendered and withdrew his 3,000 troops.
The city would be under Union control within the week.
On April 26, Farragut raised the Union flag over the New Orleans branch of the United States Mint, “making New Orleans the first Confederate city captured and occupied by Union troops.”
The Louisiana State Museum notes that on April 29, Farragut marched to city hall to take formal possession of the city and on May 1, Gen. Benjamin F. Butler arrived with 1,400 troops to take military control of New Orleans.
Union occupation of New Orleans not only put the North in charge of a crucial supply center, it also gave Union forces control of the lower Mississippi River valley, which would eventually seal the fate of the seceding states.
It would take another three years of brutal fighting before the Confederate states would surrender, opening the way for the restoration of the Union and the end of slavery.
This article first appeared on Verite and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Copy to Clipboard
[END]
---
[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2023/04/25/april-25-1862-union-forces-capture-new-orleans/
Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/
