Beautiful Crescent: A History of New Orleans

by Garvey, John B.

  In the 1800s, because of the abundance of cypress in the area, New Orleans was the coffin capital of the United States, a fact that must have been both reassuring and profitable during the many yellow fever epidemics.

  Death notices were tacked to lampposts in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to notify neighbors and friends. (Courtesy Leonard V. Huber Collection)

  Funerals and Mourning

  The care of these burial sites was a subject of great concern to New Orleanians, as were the rules and traditions that governed mourners. Death notices were tacked to poles and fences in the neighborhood of the deceased, giving the date and time of the internment and inviting friends to attend. Horse54s, pulling black shiny hearses, were draped with black and decorated with black plumes on their heads. White was used for children, and lavender or grey for the middle-aged. The horses had been trained to march, taking a single step with each note of the music.

  At the hour of death, all clocks in the homes were stopped, mirrors were covered, and a crepe was hung on the front door. A huge wake coffee pot was brought out, since wakes were held in the home. All the women wore black clothing, which could be bought second-hand or rented for the occasion. Undertakers provided a service of redecorating poorly furnished homes and providing chairs for the visitors. A few touches of black crepe transformed the houses to honor the passing. “Mourning Hangings and Catafalque” were advertised at moderate prices or on moderate terms. “Coffin Furniture” was also offered at reasonable prices, and the cast iron furniture we now use in our gardens was first designed for cemetery use to accommodate visitors. At wakes and funerals, mourning was expected to be restrained. Lamentations were revered. To New Orleanians, the care one took of the family burial site was the measure of his or her respect for the dead and the grief he or she still bore. Creoles especially kept an eye on burial sites close to their family tombs and were quick to comment on the lack of care given this vault or that plot.

  New Orleans:

  Yesterday and Today

  1857. Parlor of Gallier House at 1134 Royal Street, built by architect James Gallier Jr. in 1857 for his home. A museum property of Tulane University. (Courtesy Susan Gandolfo)

  1925. Four rows of Canary Island palms graced Anseman Avenue in City Park. Bare-breasted statues in front of the rows, which came from the Cotton Exchange, caused much outrage and were removed to the Metairie Cemetery. (Courtesy City Park Collection)

  1984. Entrance to the Louisiana World Exposition. Semi-nude figures reminiscent of the City Park statues once again caused a furor in the city but remained to welcome visitors to the Centennial Plaza from May to November.

  1929. The lighthouse at Lake Pontchartrain, built in 1838, guarded Milneburg and signaled to ships arriving from the lake’s north shore. In 1929, the lighthouse was turned over to the Levee Board and the light extinguished. In 1935, WPA money helped create lakefront property that left the lighthouse on dry ground.

  1939. Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park moved the lighthouse to the end of Elysian Fields Avenue. It ended up in Kiddieland of City Park. Pontchartrain Beach closed in 1983.

  1928. A 1920s look. Statue of Hebe, Olympic cupbearer, gazed down Lelong Avenue for sixty-five years. Donated by Commodore Ernest Lee Jahncke. (Courtesy City Park Collection)

  1922. A 1920s sound. Reverend Edward Cummings S. J., president of Loyola University, made the first radio broadcast in Louisiana, March 31, the day the license for WWL was granted. The telephone-like apparatus was in Marquette Hall on Loyola University’s campus. (Courtesy Father Thomas Clancy Jr., S. J., and Loyola University)

  1923. King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. Sitting, left to right: Baby Dodds, Honore Dutre, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dobbs, and Lil Hardin (Louis Armstrong’s second wife). Standing, left to right: King Oliver and Bill Johnson. (Courtesy Hogan Jazz Archives, Tulane University Library)

  1994. Grammy Award-winning Neville Brothers, native New Orleanians. Older brothers got their start in the 1950s; all are now internationally known. Left to right: Cyril, Aaron, Charles, and Art. (Courtesy Michael Jang)

  1929. Canal and Baronne Streets before the Canal Street Beautification Project of 1930-31. From left to right: the Godchaux Building, the Miller Brothers, the Exclusive Shope, and Liggett’s Drug Store advertising Jacob’s Candies, the Strand Theater, and Parlor Stores for rent. (Courtesy E. H. Gebhardt)

  1967. Canal Street at Baronne Street on Mardi Gras day. Left: Walgreens Drug Store, Graff’s Men’s Store, Cine Royale. Right: Maison Blanche (behind Rex sign), Audubon Building, Kress Five-and-Dime (with white façade).

  1950. The river at Canal Street, with pedestrian ramp to Algiers Ferry. Left of ramp: Poydras Street Wharf. Right of ramp: Louisiana and Nashville Railroad shed.

  1994. The river at Canal Street, now flanked by the Hilton and Marriott Hotels. Riverfront now clear of warehouses, graced by Aquarium with circular disk and nineteenth century-design riverboat. (Courtesy Port of New Orleans)

  1920. Grandstand at the Fair Grounds Race Course.

  1993. On December 17, the Fair Grounds Clubhouse on Gentilly Boulevard was razed by fire and destroyed. (Courtesy Chris E. Mickal, New Orleans Fire Department Photo Unit)

  1960. Civil Rights picketers walk in the rain outside Woolworth’s Five-and-Dime on Canal and Rampart Streets. (Courtesy the Marion James Porter Collection, New Orleans Public Library)

  1960. Civil Rights sit-in at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s Five-and-Dime. (Courtesy the Marion James Porter Collection, New Orleans Public Library)

  1988. On May 11, the Cabildo was set on fire by a roofer’s torch. The third floor and cupola were destroyed and many artifacts water damaged. (Courtesy Chris E. Mickal, New Orleans Fire Department Photo Unit)

  1994. On February 27, the Cabildo reopened after an $8 million renovation.

  1994. William Faulkner’s house at 624 Pirate’s Alley is now the site of Faulkner House Books, a rare bookstore; the headquarters of the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society; and the literary magazine, the Double Dealer Redux. The store is located in the room where Faulkner lived. (Courtesy Faulkner House)

  General Benjamin Franklin Butler headed the occupation of New Orleans for seven months during the Civil War. He was loathed by the natives, who called him “Beast Butler” or “Spoons Butler.” (Courtesy Lloyd W. Huber for Leonard V. Huber)

  CHAPTER VIII

  New Orleans, an Occupied City:

  1862-76

  A picture of New Orleans in the decade before the Civil War is pre-requisite to an understanding of why certain events took place here rather than elsewhere. In 1860, New Orleans was the largest city in the South and the largest cotton market in the world, handling in that one year two million bales of cotton. Thirty-five hundred steamboats docked at its wharves, and its total trade amounted to $3.24 million. It was a trans-shipment center for all exports coming down the Mississippi, and the port held a virtual monopoly on trade in the interior of the country. New Orleans was slow in building railroads, however, having built only eighty miles of rails when the war began. And although the steamboat had made its first voyage earlier in the century, there were still impediments to shipping, such as snags and low water points, especially at the mouth of the river. The service of bar pilots was unsatisfactory, and the rates for towing were prohibitive.

  New Orleans, with a population of 168,000, was sixth in size among urban cities in the nation. An urban aristocracy existed by the middle of the nineteenth century, to which one belonged by virtue of birth or property. Citizens whose ancestors had been in the city several generations called themselves “Creoles,” a term whose definition is still much in dispute. According to Jewell’s Crescent Illustrated, the local directory of 1873, it meant simply to be “born here” (15). If this is so, in 1860, there were Creole French, Creole Irish, Creole Jews, and Creole blacks.

  The middle class consisted of businessmen, skilled workers, clerks, and grocers. The proletariat consisted mainly of Germans and Irish, who had arr
ived too recently in the city to have earned places among the upper classes and were considered a laboring class of the lowest level. In the fourth social class were the blacks, who enjoyed considerable freedom in New Orleans in the twenty years before the Civil War. Many were skilled workers or house servants. If they were slaves, they were sometimes hired out by their masters; if they were free, they could easily get work. Free blacks included small businessmen and skilled artisans, many of whom were well-to-do. As the slavery issue grew more conflicted, the state legislature put more restrictions on free persons of color and finally forbade manumission in 1857, causing some free blacks to immigrate to Haiti and all blacks who remained to welcome the Federals when they arrived in 1862.

  In 1853, as we have seen, the worst yellow fever epidemic ever to hit New Orleans took the lives of ten thousand people. But yellow fever was not the only “sickness” from which the city suffered. Drinking was widespread, prostitution was accepted and even advertised, and gambling a way of life. Political corruption and illegal voting, especially among immigrants, was tolerated.

  And yet, it was a city of contrasts. The architecture in the richer parts of town was beautiful, the homes of the wealthy exquisitely furnished, the cuisine superb. Pleasures abounded during the Mardi Gras season. There was a regular opera season, and at any time of the year, there were plays at the Théâtre d’Orléans. Staged concerts featured well-known artists. There was horse racing at the Metairie Track and hunting and fishing within easy reach of the city. Even blacks had their enjoyment on Sunday afternoons, when they danced uninhibitedly in the Congo Square (in front of the present Municipal Auditorium). Most citizens were Catholics. Others were Episcopalian, Methodist, or Jewish. Fraternal organizations had already been formed to assist the immigrants in coping with their difficulties of adjusting to a new country.

  New Orleans’s citizens were opposed to secession. This was not because they opposed slavery. On the contrary, they defended it vehemently. But they were afraid that secession would destroy the city’s trade with the upper Mississippi valley, which was paramount to its prosperity.

  To New Orleanians, secession did not seem to be necessary to protect the institution of slavery. When Lincoln was elected, however, sentiments changed rapidly. Lincoln had said that he favored non-extension of slavery. The handwriting was on the all: eventually, he would see to it that it was wiped out altogether. In 1861, Louisiana had to decide whether to follow the other southern states and make a final break with the Union or attend a convention of southern states to make one last attempt at compromise. Louisiana voted for secession.

  The problems of the Confederacy were numerous. There was no organized government at the time of the outbreak of the war. A Confederate cabinet had to be appointed, agencies set up for coordination, and decisions made for strategy. There was a minimum of ships and war materials and no factories to produce more. President Jefferson Davis decided, for this reason, to fight a defensive war.

  Battle of the Forts

  A major episode of the War Between the States was the Battle of the Forts at the mouth of the river in April 1862 that culminated in the fall of New Orleans. Not until Vicksburg fell in July 1863 was the conquest of the Mississippi River really complete, but the events of the intervening fifteen months were disastrous to the people of New Orleans.

  No area in the country was so exposed to attack as the Mississippi valley, where there were no mountains, but the mouth of the river was thought to be well-protected by forts that had existed for a long time. There were shallow areas in the river that were hard to navigate and swamp lands that were difficult to penetrate. New Orleanians felt that their defenses were impregnable.

  Even when the flotilla of Flag Officer David G. Farragut had crossed the bar at the mouth of the river in April 1862, the Times-Picayune newspaper announced that “Forts Jackson and St. Philip had 170 guns . . . that navigation of the river was stopped by a dam about a quarter of a mile from the forts . . . that no flotilla on earth could force the dam in less than two hours, during which time it would be within cross range of the 170 guns of the highest calibre.”

  Many New Orleanians were not in the city but fighting in Virginia, since no one had expected an invasion from the “well-protected” mouth of the river. The remaining able-bodied men built breastworks around the city, giving special attention to the Chalmette Battlefield. They sunk obstructions in the bayous leading into the city and prayed their defenses would hold.

  But disasters were to befall the city. When Farragut’s flotilla came to the area of the forts, the guns were discovered to be too small and their shells fell short. The dam, or “boom,” of cypress logs that had been built across the river was broken by the rising water, which was soon to be in flood stage. The fleet simply cut through the rebuilt boom and sailed on toward New Orleans. Also, the ironclads under construction in the South were not finished in time for Farragut’s arrival. There were more Union losses than Confederate losses at the Battle of the Forts, but the fleet continued on its way to its destination.

  Federal Fleet passing Forts Jackson (on left) and St. Philip. (Courtesy Leonard V. Huber Collection)

  On April 24, the day before the city fell, state officials moved archives by railroad and steamer to other cities. On the levee, citizens burned fifteen thousand bales of cotton to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Yankees. The dry-docks on the Algiers side of the river were sunk by order of General Lovell, and privately owned steamboats were set on fire by their owners to drift downriver. On Canal Street, there was a bonfire of records of the Custom House. Normal business ceased. The criminals of the city and the poor looted warehouses on the riverfront of sugar, molasses, and food. That night, the governor and other state officials left the city by steamer and railroad, abandoning the residents.

  On the morning of April 25, General Lovell sent his small force to Camp Moore, seventy miles north of New Orleans, to prevent the bombardment of the city. He believed that the fort had fallen, and that it would be absurd to confront a flotilla of forty vessels equipped with more than one hundred large caliber guns with less than three thousand militia armed with shotguns. Mayor Monroe urged storekeepers to open their shops. People gathered on the levee to watch the flotilla sail up to the docks. Farragut disembarked and joined the mayor to make his demands.

  After a week of unsuccessful negotiations between Mayor Monroe and Captain Farragut, the US flag had still not been raised before the US Mint, the Custom House, or City Hall. Farragut had no desire to bombard the city. For one thing, he would not have had enough ammunition left for his attacks on Baton Rouge and Vicksburg.

  What brought matters to a head were the actions of an irresponsible and impulsive group of New Orleanians, who could not resist showing open defiance to the Yankees. On a Saturday morning, a week after the arrival of the flotilla, the captain of the Pensacola took a small party ashore and raised the US flag over the federal mint, which was at the end of Esplanade Avenue near the river. He warned the mob that his ship would fire howitzers loaded with grapeshot if the flag was molested. Almost immediately, William B. Mumford, a local gambler, went up to the roof and lowered the flag. He and his friends dragged the flag to Lafayette Square, where they tore it to bits and distributed it as souvenirs. Farragut replied with an ultimatum to remove the women and children from the city within forty-eight hours.

  The city council protested that bombardment was inhuman and that it was impossible to evacuate in so short a time. Then, Farragut received word that the forts had fallen. The southern provisions ran low, so the Jackson garrison mutinied and left in small boats. The men at Fort St. Philip did the same. It was possible for General Butler’s troops to come up an undefended river and take command of the city.

  Mayor Monroe now agreed to the raising of the American flag at City Hall, and the military occupation of New Orleans began. It was to last fourteen years, the longest amount of time any American city was ever occupied by a hostile power. Loss of control
of the Mississippi River and of the largest city in the South was a major blow to the Confederacy. It boosted Northern morale and had a tremendous effect on the attitude of Europe. England and France otherwise might have recognized the independence of the Confederacy or even entered the war for economic reasons due to a cotton embargo.

  “Banks Map” of 1863 shows routes into the city to be used by the Union Army for military purposes during the Civil War. Settlement is shown only along the natural levee of the Mississippi and along the small levee of the Bayous Metairie and Gentilly. (Courtesy Louisiana Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Library)

  General Benjamin Butler, Commander of the

  Department of the Gulf

  Of all the traditional villains in Southern history, none are painted blacker than William T. Sherman, who marched through Georgia, and General Benjamin Franklin Butler, who served as military commander of New Orleans for seven months in 1862. Since there were no precedents to follow, commanders of occupied territories arbitrarily created policy as they went along, using as a guide the legislation passed in Washington, such as the Confiscation Act of 1862 and the Emancipation Act of the same year.