Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2007 - (Page 66)

After the occupation of New Orleans by federal forces in 1862, residents who refused to take an oath of loyalty to the United States were banished to Confederate territory. Here, exiles disembark at Madisonville after being ferried by steamboat across Lake Pontchartrain. during Reconstruction by the Republicans who then held power. Oddly enough, the military powers that could have answered the question had removed the proof. When Shreveport, the Confederate capital of Louisiana, surrendered in June 1865, formal hostilities were over. Soon afterward, U.S. Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, commanding the Department of the Gulf in New Orleans, sent a huge amount of Confederate records to the War Department in Washington. Records Commission in Baton Rouge. They remain there today. An examination of the tallies reveals some interesting information. It is difficult to determine exactly what occurred, but some fascinating facts come to light. It appears that the radicals did win the election, but by a very close margin, not the runaway mandate they reported. The senatorial districts are easier to determine than the house districts, and the tallies per parish do not add up exactly to the MANY HISTORIANS AGREE WITH THE LATE CHARLES DUFOUR WHO WROTE THAT THE FALL OF NEW ORLEANS WAS “THE NIGHT THE WAR WAS LOST.” the Baptist, Terrebonne, West Baton Rouge, and Winn parishes. They carried the senatorial district of Morehouse and Ouachita by 11 votes and lost St. Mary Parish by 25 votes. It appears that there was heavy vote manipulation in Jackson and Union parishes, and some clerical error/vote manipulation in Avoyelles, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Pointe Coupee, and West Baton Rouge parishes. The radicals won the east bank of Orleans by 364 votes of 8,290 cast but failed on Among the items were the returns from the election and the convention. The War Department eventually sent the items to the National Archives, where they remained until 1961. At that time, with the centennial of the Civil War beginning, the National Archives returned the mass of items to the State of Louisiana where they were placed in the State Archives and totals stated. By senatorial district, 17 parishes voted for cooperation and another three parishes were separated by fewer than less than 30 votes. The Cooperationists easily won Ascension, Assumption, Caldwell, Catahoula, Claiborne, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Jefferson, Lafourche, the right bank of Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the west bank. The radical secessionists carried the day with slightly more than 52 percent of the vote, not the sweeping mandate they anticipated. With war clouds looming and national events occurring at a rapid pace during the secession process, such a close election would have been a major embarrassment to the short-lived Republic of Louisiana, followed by the 66 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Fall 2007 HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2007

Contents Friends & Letters Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Big Charity: A History of New Orleans’ Public Hospital Historic New Orleans Collection Making Groceries: A History of New Orleans Markets New Orleans’ Faubourg Tremé: Rooted in Tradition Jazz Notes Louisiana Association of Museums Chinatown New Orleans Louisiana Foodways A Question of Secession Louisiana Architecture Louisiana State Museum The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish Terra Incognita Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2007

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