Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2007 - (Page 72)

and outside plates, the building was rendered perfectly secure.” The tie rods are still in place, and the plates can be seen bolted on the outer walls of the building’s second and third floors. Shortly after the Gallier repairs, James H. Dakin, architect of New Orleans’s St. Patrick’s Church and the Louisiana Arsenal, examined the arches of the first story under the melting room. He found them “liable to fall at any moment” and recommended that the arches “should be segments of circles and the mortar should be made of the best cement.” It appears that the arches were rebuilt according to his suggestions in 1845. Problems with the building persisted, however. In 1854, Major (later General) P.G.T. Beauregard, superintendent of construction for the New Orleans Custom House, was directed to “examine and make an estimate of repairs” for the Mint. Trained as a civil engineer at West Point, he supervised various federal building projects. In this capacity, he proposed that the Mint be rendered fireproof by removing wooden floor sections and replacing them with iron beams and installing a galvanized roof. Coining Operations Congress authorized the New Orleans Branch Mint to produce gold and silver coinage. Its gold and silver came principally in the top: An Inka necklace of 13 hollow gold beads, each made of two hemipsheres, found in Cajamarca, Peru. © Craig Chesek/American Museum of Natural History below: Rolling ingots of silver for coinage production. One end of the ingot was wedge-shaped to allow for passing through the rolling machine. The rollers were calibrated to a prescribed dimension to more closely match the width required for the specific coinage. Reprinted from How Money is Created, 1897 form of dust, bars, foreign coin, and old jewelry. The 1838 “O” mark dime was the first coin produced, and the quartereagles came the following year. By the mid-1850s, the mint was producing silver coins in dollars, halfdollars, quarter-dollars, dimes, half-dimes, and three-cent pieces. In gold coinage, the Mint made double-eagles, eagles, half-eagles, three-dollar pieces, quarter-eagles, and dollars. The Mint’s history during the Civil War illustrates the tug of war between the Union and the Confederate States of America (CSA) over crucial resources. After Louisiana seceded from the United States on January 26, 1861, the state took possession of the Mint. Operations continued with the same employees with the stipulation that they take an oath of allegiance to the state. One prominent employee — Maximillian F. Bonzano — fled to New York instead. Born in Ebigen, Germany, in 1821, Bonzano had immigrated to New Orleans with his father and brother in 1835. He found work as a roller boy (an inker of type) and helped George Kindall and F. A. Lumsden work the press for what became the Picayune newspaper. Bonzano also studied chemistry and pharmacy and became an apothecary. Entering Charity Hospital as a resident medical student in 1843, he was eventually elected a visiting physician, a post he maintained until offered a position as melter and refiner at the Mint. Following Louisiana’s secession from the United States, Union supporter Bonzano purportedly destroyed all the coining dies and went North. At that time, the building contained a half million dollars in gold and silver in its vaults. After the state joined the Confederate States of America in March, it ceded control of the Mint to the new national government. The New Orleans Mint was the only mint to strike coins with a unique Confederate design. Due to a lack of bullion, the C.S.A. Mint ceased operations in late April. A year later, Flag Officer David Farragut gained control of New Orleans and raised the United States flag atop the New Orleans Mint. William Mumford, along with three other men, removed the flag and tore it to pieces. He was eventually arrested and sentenced by U.S. General Benjamin Butler to be hanged in front of the Mint on June 7, 1862. Newspapers throughout the North and South reported the hanging. In reaction, Confederate President Jefferson Davis proclaimed General Butler a “felon, deserving of capital punishment” and ordered that Butler, in the event of being captured, be immediately executed. The same month, Maximillian Bonzano returned to New Orleans as acting superintendent of the Mint and became involved in Reconstruction politics. During the federal occupation, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but Congress refused to seat anyone from Confederate states. At the state’s constitutional convention in 1864, Bonzano penned the article of emancipation, freeing Louisiana’s slaves. He also purchased the Hermitage, a Chalmette plantation home that Andrew Jackson 72 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Fall 2007 http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/

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

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.