Campfire and battlefield : $b an illustrated history of the campaigns and conflicts of the great Civil WarRidpath, John Clark
History
Campfire and battlefield : $b an illustrated history of the campaigns and conflicts of the great Civil War
Ridpath, John Clark
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Pictorial works
or do with it as he chose."
[Illustration: OLD CITY HALL, NEW ORLEANS, WHERE THE SURRENDER OF THE
CITY WAS DEMANDED.]
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL MANSFIELD LOVELL, C. S. A.]
[Illustration: THOS. O. MOORE, GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA.]
On the night of the 24th, by order of the authorities in the city, the
torch was applied to everything, except buildings, that could be of
use to the victors. Fifteen thousand bales of cotton, heaps of coal
and wood, dry-docks, a dozen steamboats and as many cotton-ships, and
an unfinished ironclad ram were all burned. Barrels were rolled out
and broken open, the levee ran with molasses, and the poor people
carried away the sugar in their baskets and aprons. The Governor
called upon the people of the State to burn their cotton, and two
hundred and fifty thousand bales were destroyed.
Butler had witnessed the passage of the forts, and he now hurried over
his troops and invested St. Philip on the land side, while Porter sent
some of his mortar-boats to a bay in the rear of Fort Jackson, and in
a few days both works were surrendered. Farragut sent two hundred and
fifty marines into the city to take formal possession and guard the
public buildings. Butler arrived there with his forces on the 1st of
May, and it was then turned over to him, and it remained in Federal
possession throughout the war. His administration of the captured
city, from May to December, was the subject of much angry controversy;
but no one denies that he reduced its turbulence to order, made it
cleaner than it had ever been before, and averted a pestilence. He
also caused provisions to be issued regularly to many of the needy
inhabitants.
The most famous incident of his administration was what became known
as "the woman order." Many of the women of New Orleans, even while
they were living on food issued to them by the National commissary,
took every possible pains to flaunt their disloyalty and to express
contempt for the wearers of the blue uniform. If an officer entered a
street car, all the women would immediately leave it. If a detachment
of soldiers passed through a residence street, many windows were
thrown open and "Dixie" or the "Bonny Blue Flag" was loudly played on
the piano. If the women met an individual soldier on the sidewalk,
they drew their skirts closely around them and passed at its extreme
edge. And all the while they took every opportunity to display small
rebel flags on their bosoms and to proclaim loudly that their city was
"captured but not conquered." These things were borne with patience;
but when one woman, enraged at the imperturbable calmness of the
city's captors, stepped up to two officers in the street and spat in
their faces, General Butler judged that the time for putting a stop to
such proceedings had come. Accordingly, he issued General Orders No.
28, which read thus:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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