During 2013 investigations in City Square 350, archaeologists excavated a large and well-constructed brick-lined privy shaft, producing a rich assemblage of glass containers and ceramic vessels, along with an abundance of personal items, including many items related to armaments that are not typical in urban assemblages, including wooden gun stocks, a trigger guard and assembly, a saber hilt and blade, a second sword handle, and numerous pieces of lead ball shot and bullets. Further hinting at a special function for the assemblage was a series of figural smoking pipe bowls, including two of the U.S. Presidents Ulysses Grant and Zachary Taylor, and another of a soldier.

The accuracy of historic map overlays becomes more questionable as one moves farther back into the nineteenth century. Initially, researchers thought the privy was associated with the 344/2314-2316 Erato Street address, where a series of police officers (named J.J. Bermingham, Henry Campbell, William H.C. Roust, and Robert Cheevers) are listed as residents in city directories in the early to mid-1870s. While the 1870 U.S. Census does not list addresses, there is also a policeman named William Moore listed in the vicinity of the address in that year. It is likely that all of these men served for the Metropolitan Police, the integrated police force that was responsible for security in the city during Reconstruction and was aligned with the Republican government. This seemed to suggest a connection with both the armaments and the pipe depicting Grant, a Republican leader unpopular with the former Confederates who had attempted to regain political power in New Orleans.

However, as archaeologists located other features on the block, and the map further refined as a result, they determined that the privy was more likely to be located at the rear property line of the 346/1307 S. Liberty Street address. Occupation of this property was much more stable in the period in question, with a widow named Mary Wilson owning and residing at the property for over 40 years. Sharing the house with her was a large extended family, typically including a number of her own children, along with her married daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Emile Legien, and, eventually their children. In 1880 Census (the census nearest in time to the assemblage recovered, listed Wilson as a milliner and Emile as a plasterer. Many of Wilson’s sons went on to work as carpenters, while daughter Kate worked as a teacher. Many of the archaeological items recovered also suggest that a large family occupied the space, with a particularly rich array of items relating to toys and play, hygiene and health, and personal adornment in the assemblage.

The artifacts recovered are illustrated in more detail below. They provide no ‘smoking gun’ as to which household was responsible for the items in the privy, and ultimately, there may be no singular solution. The image descriptions present some hypothetical scenarios based on what is known from city directories, census records, and the artifacts themselves; the reader is invited to speculate as to what this combination of items meant for a household in New Orleans at the end of Reconstruction.

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Human history from the 15th-20th centuries is dominated by Europeans’ unrelenting encroachment on and theft of land and natural resources in the “new world” and the “global south”. Though chicanery was deployed from time to time to accomplish these aims, military brutality was the invaders’ primary tool of conquest and control. The native peoples who were supplanted, dispersed or eliminated were generally at a technological disadvantage when it came to waging war against these adversaries. Psychologically, too, the occupants were sometimes slow to grasp the unmitigated greed of these new arrivals from across the sea – a greed that was hard to fathom in a land of abundance. There was plenty for everyone; that was clear. But since some people had already established long-standing domain over certain areas, the newcomers would have to find open, unclaimed territory or places generously granted to them by the natives if they intended to stay.

That line of thinking was wasted on these hordes of adventurers, however. They routinely just took what they wanted and killed anyone who dared protest. These Europeans possessed superior weapons of destruction and they fought to the death. It is not surprising, then, that they were overwhelmingly victorious in their battles year after year, century after century, place after place, until they could proclaim complete sovereignty over entire continents.

Nevertheless, every now and then the underdogs in these confrontations struck a blow for justice and gave their boorish rivals a bit of momentary comeuppance. This was the case with the Natchez Uprising of 1729.

During the early part of the 18th century when the French claimed control of the lower Mississippi River Valley, they established a military settlement near the traditional home of the Natchez Indians, 175 miles northwest of New Orleans. The French had selected the area as their tobacco-growing region and forced the native people to be part of the undertaking’s labor force – along with imported Africans. But when a new commander demanded possession of the main Natchez village to annex to his own plantation, the natives stalled the Frenchman until they could plan a proper response.

On the morning of November 29, 1729, they made their move and attacked the French fort and other living quarters, killing 230 white men but sparing women and enslaved Africans. This revolt was a major blow to the fortunes of the French and helped contribute to the collapse of the Company of the Indies, which had a contract with the French monarchy to economically exploit the territory. The Europeans later waged a retaliatory campaign against the Natchez using Choctaw (aka Chahta or Chata) and African forces (an alliance they later regretted fostering).

The fighting went on for several years, forcing the Natchez eventually to seek refuge among the Chickasaw, then the Creeks and, finally, the Cherokees before disappearing as a distinct people by the mid-1730s. In the meantime, the French repossessed the Natchez lands, which remained under white control thereafter. A hundred years later, the town named Natchez had become a major trading center for enslaved Africans working in the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta.

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In the last years of the 18th century, enslavers feared that the practice of enslavement would soon end. It could have, if not for the advent of the cotton gin, which created immense demand for enslaved labor. America purchased Louisiana, the plantations cultivated cotton and the enslaved knew their bondage would not end. Their desire for freedom brought about Deslondes’ 1811 Revolt.

In 1812 America declared war on the British. They saw the British as too focused on France to fight in America and thought they would win easily. They were wrong. The Battle of New Orleans took place in February 1815, at the end of this war.

In battle, it is an effective move to come at your enemy from two sides, like pincers. In New Orleans there were two prongs, one on the west bank and one on the east bank of the Mississippi River. That’s why there were two battles, the Battle of Chalmette [which everyone knows about, because Jackson won] and the Battle of Algiers, which is less known. In each battle the maroons [Africans who had escaped enslavement to live in the swamps] played a crucial role. To induce the maroons to fight on the American side, Jackson promised the enslaved their freedom. He did not keep his promise.

The Battle of Algiers was fought in the vicinity of Whitney Avenue and L.B. Landry Avenue, around the Verret Canal which led from the Barataria Bay to the Mississippi River. The British lost the Eastbank battle to the Americans, but they won on the Westbank, with the help of maroons and enslaved men.

Enslaved men played a crucial role in the fortification of Chalmette. Jackson would not have been able to win without their construction of the fortifications. In Algiers the maroons and the enslaved fought with the British, who promised them their freedom. Unlike the Americans, they kept their promise. When the British were forced to retreat, these free men and women went with them, to Mobile, where the British had defeated the Americans. When the British lost Mobile, these free men and women went with them to Nova Scotia, Canada, and then to Sierra Leone, also a British colony.

Sierra Leone’s history reflects this heritage. The nation’s capital is called Freetown, the same as the maroon settlement of upper Algiers [also called McDonoghville]. The people who made this journey developed a language, which is today called Krio - Creole - which shares roots with the language of Afro-Louisianans.

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Commander Noel Carriere was decorated for bravery in the American Revolution, a black hero in his own time, forgotten in ours. Carriere was born into slavery at English Turn in 1745 to African parents who came to New Orleans in chains. His intelligence and leadership were evident even in slavery.

As a teenager, he became a barrel maker, a lucrative, highly regarded trade. The free black militiamen who owned plantations a stone's throw away from the place where Carriere grew up taught him what it was to be a soldier and a man. He must have impressed them: they listed him as a member of the free black militia before he gained his legal freedom in 1771. He rose quickly through the ranks to become an officer. When he was barely in his teens, people began to ask him to serve as godfather to their children, a mark of esteem and trust. His frequent appearances at the baptismal font earned him the respect of Church leaders. The priests must have been struck, too, by the military honor guards that Carriere led at the weddings of the men under his command, a visible testimony to the dignity of the free black community and its leader.

Spain allied with the thirteen colonies against Britain in the American Revolution. Carriere was decorated for bravery in all three of the battles Spain fought, including the successful siege of Pensacola that freed the French fleet to sail north to Yorktown to seal the defeat of the British. Carriere fought in the war that Americans waged to secure freedom and equality. The white soldiers he fought beside were rewarded with citizenship. Tragically, that was denied Carriere and his men when New Orleans became part of the United States in 1803. That, and he should be remembered now.

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The Louisiana Slave Revolt of 1811 was the largest slave insurrection in the history of the United States. The revolt was carried out by enslaved men and women, house servants and field hands, some born in Louisiana and others recently arrived from Africa and the Caribbean. Bound to the sugar plantations in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes, these slaves together decided to build an army and fight for their freedom.

Led by Charles Deslondes, a slave believed to have arrived in Louisiana from Haiti, the revolt began on January 8 on Manuel Andry’s plantation near present-day LaPlace. Armed with pikes, axes, shovels, and a few rifles, the army of the enslaved began its two-day march in military formation down the east bank of the Mississippi River. Waving flags and beating drums, the rebels burned plantations, crops, and storehouses. As it marched on New Orleans, the army grew as slaves rushed out from the plantations to join the fight. Witnesses estimated that the army had grown to between two hundred and five hundred slaves.

Militia was dispatched by the government in New Orleans and by planters in the surrounding parishes to fight the slaves. The army of the enslaved had its last stand in the early morning on January 10 when it was defeated by a militia from across the river. Some slaves were killed in the fighting, and many more were executed after summary investigations. Authorities chopped the heads off the corpses and displayed them on tall spikes in New Orleans and along the Mississippi River as a warning to other slaves. The 1811 Louisiana Slave Revolt was a heroic struggle that came to a tragic ending. At the same time, it is a historical event of undeniable local, national, and global significance.

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The extraordinary life-history of Saint Louis la Nuit reads like a first draft of early New Orleans history. Born in Africa in 1728, he had a name, a family and an ethnic identity which defined his place in the world. Torn from his identity moorings by the slave trade, he was assigned a new legal identity—“esclave,” and a new name, St. Louis. As he negotiated his way from slavery to freedom through different racial regimes, he helped shape the social architecture and cultural fabric of New Orleans in fundamental ways that are recognizable today.

Freed from slavery for extraordinary service by his French planter “owner,” La Nuit’s new identity-making process began with his embrace of Catholicism, the building block of social organization and of the black cultural community in New Orleans. As god-parent for nine free and enslaved male children LaNuit established a spiritual bond between himself, the child and the parents that radiated out into the horizontal planes of the social community embracing both enslaved and free.

As a member of the Compagnie des Mulatres et Négres, LaNuit represents the 1770s and 1780s generation of black military leaders who fought under Galvez in the Mississippi River Campaigns of the American Revolution. The right to bear arms in the service of the nation provided an opportunity for men to practice civic behavior, the first step in the long road to citizenship for black Americans. For valor, LaNuit was awarded a silver medal of honor and a pension by the Spanish Crown.

Armed with valuable life experience, LaNuit was in the vanguard of black entrepreneurial men and women who claimed civic equality through the ownership of private property. The 8 arpents of land he purchased in 1774 on Bayou Road is a landmark on the map of black entrepreneurship and on the city of New Orleans itself. His sale of the land in two-arpent plots to free women of color put a territorial mark on the area that became Tremé and gives credence to its claim as the oldest existing black neighborhood in North America.

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 In the nineteenth century, the port of New Orleans grew from a colonial supply depot into the second largest port in the country and the fourth largest in the world during the 1840s. European explorers and traders dispersed the centuries-old practices of coffee cultivation and consumption from the Middle East to Europe, then to the Americas. During the eighteenth century, New Orleans began receiving its first shipments of green coffee from Cuba and other Caribbean Islands. As the city and commerce grew, more coffee arrived from the Caribbean and South America.

The Civil War and Reconstruction’s impact on the port of New Orleans was catastrophic. The city treasury was wiped out, leaving few funds to repair the docks and build covered wharves to store incoming goods. New Orleans also faced threats of yellow fever, which shut down the port for months at a time and forced importers to take their cargoes elsewhere. City lore dictates that during the Civil War, Louisianans looked to adding chicory root to their coffee when Union naval blockades cut off the port of New Orleans. With shipments coming to a halt, desperate New Orleanians began mixing things with coffee to stretch out the supply. While chicory alone cannot provide a caffeine buzz, the grounds taste similar and can be sold at a lower rate. Just as the French had done during the blockades of the Napoleonic wars, it is said that resourceful New Orleanians stretched their precious stock of imported coffee by mixing it with ground, roasted chicory root, which could be grown locally. Though a (possibly fabled) invention of wartime necessity, the chicory blend was embraced for the mellow caramel undertones and smooth texture it added to coffee. Now a tradition deeply rooted in the city’s culture, the locals and tourists alike enjoy the unique blend of coffee now commonly associated with New Orleans.

During the 1920s, “the coffee break” had not yet become a part of the daily ritual of American workers. In New Orleans, “where business was said to have taken a secondary role to pleasure” the mid-morning break was becoming a necessity. In 1928, literary icon, Lyle Saxon, wrote in Fabulous New Orleans:

“It is no unusual thing for a businessman to say casually: ‘Well, let's go and get a cup of coffee,’ as a visitor in his office is making ready to depart. It is a little thing perhaps, this drinking of coffee at odd times, but it is very characteristic of the city itself. Men in New Orleans give more thought to the business of living than men in other American cities… I have heard Northern businessmen complain bitterly about these little interruptions for coffee or what-not.”        

Currently, New Orleans is one of the top coffee ports in North America. Beans are shipped to New Orleans in large containers from over thirty coffee-producing countries. Once processed in New Orleans, the coffee is shipped out to large bulk roasters and smaller specialty roasters around the world. A dozen local coffee roasters prepare products for 20 national and local brands, while Folgers now operates the world’s largest coffee roasting plant a few miles downriver from the French Quarter. The aroma of roasting coffee is a familiar scent, known by locals as “the bridge smell”, in the mornings in many of New Orleans’ historic neighborhoods.

The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, closing only on Christmas Day or in preparation for an unwelcome hurricane. For many visiting the Crescent City, a stop at Cafe du Monde has served as a delightfully delicious introduction to the coffee traditions of New Orleans. The freshly powdered beignets and café au lait have been popular since its opening, attracting anyone from day laborers on a coffee break to debutantes on their way home from a ball. “The original menu consisted of dark roasted coffee with chicory, beignets, white and chocolate milk, and freshly squeezed orange juice. The coffee is served black or au lait, meaning that it is mixed half and half with hot milk.” Beignets are square French-style doughnuts, generously covered with powdered sugar. In 1988, iced coffee and soft drinks were introduced to the cafe. The establishment remains an important part of local culture, as new locations have spread further from the city into suburban areas to reach new audiences.

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Since its founding 150 years earlier, New Orleans had never seen anything like it: immense crowds of black residents, including members of thirty-some mutual aid societies, thronging Esplanade Avenue for more than a mile to witness the funeral procession of André Cailloux, an African American Union captain who had fallen during the initial assault against Confederate ramparts at Port Hudson, a hundred miles upriver from the Union-occupied city. The charge was prelude to a protracted siege, a downstream complement to U.S. Grant's more famous strangulation of Vicksburg. For six weeks Cailloux's body rotted in Louisiana's liquid heat, as rebel sharpshooters repulsed Union burial details. Not until Port Hudson surrendered on July 8th were Cailloux's remains retrieved. By then the only identifying mark was a ring on a skeletal knuckle signifying his membership in the "Friends of Order," a black self-help society he had helped found.

A former slave and self-employed cigar maker who had gained his freedom in 1847, Cailloux exemplified the complexities and cohesiveness of New Orleans mixed-race community of free people of color. Residing below Canal Street, they were artisans, boarding house proprietors and small shopkeepers for the most part. They owned property. A few accumulated real wealth. They established schools, chartered mutual aid societies, sponsored cultural institutions. Cailloux, who was very dark-skinned and proud of it, stood tall in this community. He was one of the early organizers of the first all-black Union regiment to fight in the Civil War--the First Louisiana Native Guards.

Callioux's body lay in state on a raised platform in his New Orleans fraternal hall, his sword and uniform resting on the American flag that draped his casket. Two black Union privates assisted the abolitionist priest Father Claude Paschal Maistre, to deliver the last rites of the Catholic Church because the city's pro-Confederate archbishop threatened with excommunication anyone caught ministering to former slaves. Two companies of the Sixth Louisiana (colored) regiment the hearse. Six black captains of the Second Louisiana Native Guards served as pallbearers. And playing the dirge accompanying the procession to the Bienville Street cemetery where Cailloux was laid to rest was a white regimental band from Massachusetts. The immense outpouring of black respect sprang from the deepest wells of gratitude André Cailloux's martydom in defense of African American liberties and universal human dignity was instrumental in transfiguring a war for union into a war for freedom. It also radicalized this distinctive community, girding them for the no less challenging fight for equal citizenship that lay ahead.

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Free people of color were instrumental to the creation of the ironwork and architecture that you see while walking throughout the French Quarter. The 1820 Census lists 1,319 free people of color employed in manufacture, almost equal to the number of white people working in the industry at the time. Jean-Louis Dolliole, a free man of color, was well-known for his rendition of the “creole cottage,” employing traditionally Spanish architectural design mixed with his unique spin on French colonial building techniques using local materials. His two most famous creations on Pauger and Saint Philip Streets serve as contemporary reminders of his lasting influence. Ultimately, however, his legacy demonstrates the significant role that many free people of color played in the social fabric of antebellum New Orleans, despite the increasing restrictions on their freedom.

Jean-Louis’ father, Louis Dolliole, immigrated to Spanish Louisiana from Provence, France in the 1760s. Upon arrival, he initiated a romantic partnership with Genevieve “Mamie” Larronde, a free woman of color. Larronde, whose birth went undocumented, appears in many other records as an independent matriarch, citizen, and businesswoman. Per her death record, Larronde lived to be 91 years old, marking her birth year around 1745. Due to a lack of documentation, it is ambiguous whether Larronde was born free or manumitted later in life. During the Spanish Era (1763-1800), one of the ways an enslaved person could fight for their freedom was through the practice of coartación, or legal self-manumission. Enslaved persons could purchase their own freedom if they were able to raise enough money to match their market value through side-work. Enslaved New Orleanians would take on extra jobs during their scarce free time to save up money. An enslaved person could sue their enslaver if they didn't agree to a reasonable sale price.

Larronde had three daughters when she entered a partnership with Louis Dolliole. Larronde would ultimately bequeath some of her property to these daughters upon her death in 1838. Dolliole and Larronde had four children together, but Jean-Louis came to be the most renowned and prolific of the Dolliole family builders. Jean-Louis both owned and built the vast majority of the family’s properties in the Faubourg Tremé and French Quarter. 

In 1794, Larronde bought the family home at 933 Saint Philip Street. The family lived there for over 50 years, during which time the title shifted back and forth between Larronde and Dolliole. The Dollioles built more houses on acquired land next to their Saint Philip home to accommodate their children as they got older and married. Ultimately, Jean-Louis bought or inherited all the family’s St. Philip properties. He married twice and had a total of seven children.

As a young man, Jean-Louis, along with his brothers and cousins, joined the Louisiana militia battalion for free men of color. Jean-Louis served under Spanish, French, and American leadership, and was a private in Fortier’s Battalion during the Battle of New Orleans. Following the Haitian Revolution, a near revolt at Pointe Coupee, the 1811 Slave Rebellion, and an influx of enslaved and free black people to the city, the white-controlled government began to erode the power of the politically and socially active black militia. By 1815, the government disbanded the free black militia. In times of crisis, however, such as the Battle of New Orleans, black militias were reinstated to provide essential protection.

Unlike some families of color at the time, the Dollioles were able to circumvent the 1808 and 1825 Civil Codes barring illegitimate children and life partners from inheriting over one-third of an estate. Through intervivos donations and strategic property sales, the Dollioles kept both moveable and immoveable property within the family, generation after generation. Not only did the Dolliole men financially support each other and their kin, but they also legally represented each other, their relations, and their friends. Pierre gave his brother Jean-Louis power of attorney for his estate in anticipation of his passing, and Jean-Louis spoke on behalf of his siblings after the death of their mother. Ursain Guesnon was a fellow builder and friend of the Dollioles who appointed Jean-Louis executor of his estate upon his death in 1843. In a Louisiana Supreme Court case in 1846, Jean-Louis stood as executor for the deceased Joseph Priesto during a suit for the freedom of a person previously enslaved by Priesto.

Jean-Louis died at the age of 82 from chronic cystitis at his house on Bayou Road. At the time of his death, Jean-Louis owned 7 properties and died with an estate valued at $13,959 (the modern equivalent of $434,285). Jean-Louis is buried in his father’s tomb at St. Louis Cemetery #1.

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The Leeds Iron Foundry was owned and operated by Charles Leeds. It was located at Delord and Constance Streets during the Antebellum period of the nineteenth century. The foundry was opened in 1824. Leeds became a partner in 1844 upon his father’s death. [1] Before the Civil War, this foundry was the most prolific producer of “steel cotton bale presses” in the world and was one of the most important foundries in the South. It maintained several hundred employees for the production of various iron plantation equipment. The Leeds Company was successful enough that it actually issued its own banknotes, a common practice at the time.

The foundry manufactured supplies for the Confederate army and navy, including two naval vessels and even an early submarine, the Pioneer I. In particular, the Leeds Foundry was reported to have built “‘3.3-inch Confederate bronze field rifles’ and ’6-pounder Confederate bronze field guns.’” [2]

During the period of Reconstruction, Leeds allowed his foundry to function as a base of operations for a subgroup of the White League, a militant white supremacy organization. It produced arms for the White League, including one cannon. An arms shipment sent from the Leeds Foundry prompted the New Orleans Police to clash with the White League members stationed in the city and ended with their violent takeover of the city for roughly three days. Leeds’ collusion with this group helped fuel his election to mayor in 1874. [3]

Today, the area which once housed the iron foundry is home to the Preservation Resource Center. This particular building in the foundry complex was built to serve as storage space and showrooms, so it was ideally suited for the new center. [4] This organization was founded in order to help preserve the architecture in the city of New Orleans. It is open to the public. [5] The site of the Leeds Iron Foundry can be found on the US Register of Historic Places.

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Almost 300 years ago, in 1727, the Ursuline nuns arrived in New Orleans at the invitation of Governor Bienville. While awaiting the completion of their convent in 1734, the Ursuline nuns established a school and an orphanage. The Ursuline Order provided crucial social services as New Orleans developed into the administrative center for the colony of Louisiana, educating girls and managing the hospital. One of the nuns wrote that they cared for sick soldiers a few months after moving into their convent in July of 1734.

In 1787, Spanish philanthropist Don Andres Almonester y Roxas, who also built the Cabildo and St. Louis Cathedral, constructed a new brick chapel for the Ursuline nuns, at his own expense. This chapel facing Ursulines Street was dedicated on March 19, 1787. The chapel had been named “Our Lady of Victory,” but at Don Almonester’s request the new chapel was called “Our Lady of Consolation.”

In December 1810, a large wooden statue of Mary and the child Jesus, carved in France and painted in gold, arrived in New Orleans and was placed in the Ursuline chapel. The statue was titled “Our Lady of Prompt Succor,” in thanks to Pope Pius VII for his “prompt” permission for Mother St. Michel Gensoul to leave France and travel to Louisiana. Mother St. Michel Gensoul and several other French Ursuline nuns responded to requests for assistance from the Ursuline nuns in New Orleans.

On January 7, 1815, the night before the Battle of New Orleans, the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor was placed above the chapel entrance. All night long the Ursuline sisters and New Orleans citizens prayed in the Chapel of Our Lady of Consolation while awaiting word from the Chalmette battlefield. Mother Ste. Marie Francis Olivier de Vezin, the Superior of the Ursuline nuns, vowed an annual Mass of Thanksgiving in honor of Our Lady of Prompt Succor if the Americans were spared loss of life in the battle. “The Mother and nuns were still at prayer on January 8 when a courier arrived at the church and made a dramatic entrance proclaiming that General Jackson was victorious,” according to one account. After the battle, Ursuline sisters cared for sick and wounded British and American soldiers at the convent.

A Mass of Thanksgiving celebrating the American victory was held in St. Louis Cathedral on January 23, 1815. Abbe Dubourg, later Bishop Dubourg, presided at the service which was attended by Major General Andrew Jackson and his staff, as well as hundreds of people inside the church and thousands standing outside. Jackson and his staff are said to have visited the Ursuline Convent to pay their respects to the nuns and thank them for their prayers. The Ursuline nuns kept their promise and every year a Mass of Thanksgiving in honor of Our Lady of Prompt Succor is held on January 8th, the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans.

In 1894, Pope Leo XIII authorized the Ursuline nuns to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Prompt Succor on the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. The solemn coronation of this gold, carved wooden statue of Virgin and Child took place on November 10, 1895. Citizens of New Orleans donated gold and jewels to create crowns for the Virgin and Child. The crowns are only displayed on special occasions and each year during the Mass of Thanksgiving on January 8th. The statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor, the “Patroness of Louisiana,” resides in the National Shrine at 2701 State Street in uptown New Orleans.

The Archbishop of New Orleans celebrates the Mass in the National Shrine on State Street. The 200th anniversary of the Mass of Thanksgiving will be celebrated on January 8, 2015.

Unfortunately, the Chapel of Our Lady of Consolation facing Ursulines Street no longer exists. A 1928 newspaper article reported that the chapel was condemned and was to be demolished. The Old Ursuline Convent at 1112 Chartres Street can be visited Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. An admission fee is charged.

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In August 1861, Harry Macarthy, also known as "The Arkansas Comedian," arrived in New Orleans to perform a three-month stint of "Personation Concerts" at the Academy of Music, a then popular play house located on St. Charles Avenue. Macarthy debuted “The Bonnie Blue Flag” at these concerts, a song Macarthy wrote in honor of the young Confederacy. On August 9, 1861 The Daily Picayune praised Macarthy as a man of "great versatility of talent" with "a fine voice.” Throughout his stay in New Orleans both Macarthy and his Confederate anthem were met with excitement and became quite popular.

The Bonnie Blue Flag refers to one of the first unofficial Confederate flags. However, the flag has a history in Louisiana that pre-dates the Civil War. The blue banner with a single white star in the center closely resembles the flag raised by the short-lived Republic of West Florida. The Republic included territory from Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, and only lasted a few months before its annexation by the United States. The flag reappeared decades later in Texas, a United States territory gained through similar means as the West Florida territory, and is commonly called the "Lone Star Flag" in that context. However, the popularity of Macarthy's song forever linked the flag to the memory Confederacy.

The chorus of “The Bonnie Blue Flag” intended to unite Southerners from different states under the principles of the new Confederacy:

"We are a band of brothers, And native to the soil,

Fighting for the property, We gain'd by honest toil;

And when our rights were threatened, The cry rose near and far,

Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag, that bears a Single Star!"

Macarthy also compared the South's fight to the American Revolution; "Like patriots of old, we'll fight our heritage to save."

This line is perplexing in light of the Confederacy’s recent break from the United States, but is not an uncommon sentiment in Confederate rhetoric. America’s revolutionary past seemed to legitimize the South's fight for independence, casting the Northern states in the same imposing light as the English crown. Also, the perceived connection to "patriots of old" reminded Southerners of the founding principles of the United States that the South was fighting to regain.

During the Civil War, a repertoire of Confederate anthems was created to re-identify the seceded Confederate states as something new and separate from the Union. "The Bonnie Blue Flag" became one of the most popular of these anthems, particularly in New Orleans. The creation of cultural materials, such as national anthems, is one of the most important aspects of building a young nation. Alice Fahs, Civil War and material culture historian, points out, however, that by creating parallels between the Confederate cause and the cause of the American patriots, Confederate songwriters were essentially "inviting the very dependence on Northern culture that they spurned."

E. Lawrence Abel, a historian of Civil War music and expert on Harry Macarthy, claims that a riot took place during one of Macarthy's Personation Concerts. Abel writes that a group of Texas soldiers attended a Personation Concert on their way to the battlefield. When Macarthy sang "The Bonnie Blue Flag," a symbol that would have been recognizable both for their home state of Texas and the new Confederacy, the soldier’s excitement devolved into riot. The Daily Picayune reported on Macarthy's performances regularly, but never made explicit mention of this riot. However, on September 24, 1861, The Daily Picayune published the arrest of a Charles J. Muller who was fined ten dollars for "willfully [disturbing] the peace of the Academy of Music" and that others in attendance had to pay five dollars for "mere outside disturbances." This event may have been the one mentioned by Abel, or simply the effects of a rowdy crowd on a night out. Regardless, the riotous reaction to Macarthy's performance is now part of the historical memory of "The Bonnie Blue Flag."

Not long after Macarthy finished his stint at the Academy of Music, Federal forces arrived in New Orleans and occupied the city. Despite Union presence, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" remained part of the soundscape of New Orleans as a song protest throughout the war.

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The popularity of sheet music in the United States had reached its peak by the start of the Civil War. Well before the development of recording and broadcasting technology, the commercial music industry centered upon the circulation of sheet music played by both amateur and professional musicians. To enjoy popular music, consumers either had to perform the songs themselves, attend public concerts, or participate in informal gatherings. This made music a more interactive and socially engaging experience than the passive role today’s recording industry creates for listeners.

The nationalization of the sheet music industry in the late nineteenth century stifled the production of songs created by local musicians and composers. In the mid-1800s, however, music created by local and regional musicians readily found its way to audiences via the many music publishers found in various US cities. These conditions allowed a song popularized through performance in New Orleans to become a controversial anthem of the Confederacy. Historian E. Lawrence Abel speculates that A.E. Blackmar and Bro. ran the South’s most successful sheet music publishing house. Among other tunes, such as "Missouri, or a voice from the South," and "Dixie," Blackmar published one of the earliest imprints of Harry Macarthy’s popular song “Bonnie Blue Flag.”

In May 1862, Union forces entered New Orleans and the city became one of the first occupied territories in the South during the Civil War. From May to December 1862, General Benjamin Butler ruled over the city. His legacy is marked by his severe social policies. General Order No. 40 states that "Any person who has in his possession...any property of any kind or description whatever, of the so-called Confederate States...shall be liable to imprisonment and to have his property confiscated." With this order, owning or singing one of the most popular songs of the period became an act of treason. Arrest records from New Orleans papers reveal that men and women were regularly arrested for singing "Bonnie Blue Flag," and were charged with a range of penalties, from a fine to time in the workhouse to a full pardon.

A few months before Butler took over the city, advertisements for A.E. Blackmar and Bro. disappeared from the newspapers. Henry, the oldest Blackmar brother, relocated his publishing operation to Atlanta, where it remained successful for the duration of the war. Armand Blackmar stayed to run the shop in New Orleans, but was not quite as lucky. Butler, acting on General Order No. 40, is said to have arrested Blackmar and ransacked his shop, destroying all Confederate materials inside. By the time we see Blackmar in New Orleans again, Butler had been removed from the city and replaced by General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, who is known to have pursued a more socially lenient approach to running New Orleans than his predecessor.

In November 1863, advertisements for Blackmar reappeared in the newspapers of New Orleans, but no longer promoted "The Bonnie Blue Flag." These advertisements also reported a change of address from 74 Camp Street to 167 Canal Street, where Blackmar continued to publish music for the duration of the war. Paper and ink were in scarce supply by this point in the war, forcing some publishers to print on recycled materials such as wallpaper and develop new ways to make ink for printing. However, despite material shortages and Union presence, Blackmar's success in the final years of the war suggests that the demand for sheet music remained strong in occupied New Orleans.

After the Civil War and the collapse of the Confederacy, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" developed a life of its own. In the second decade of the twentieth century, the song was revived as a symbol of Lost Cause mentality in the midst of fifty-year commemorations of the War. During the Civil Rights era, "The Bonnie Blue Flag" once again became a song of protest, this time against the integration of public spaces. It even found its way back into the classroom, as one New Orleans resident remembers learning it at his elementary school in the 1950s. It can even be heard in current movies such as Gods and Generals and, more perplexingly, the video game Bioshock. The long afterlives of this song have sometime divorced it from its original meaning, but its memory also reveals how music played a role in the city's experience of the Civil War.

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Judge Francois-Xavier Martin, a Louisiana Supreme Court judge for thirty-one years, from 1815 until his death in 1846, first acquired 915 Royal Street in 1818 for $7,500. At that time, a two-story brick house with a tile roof was situated on the property.

This Victorian brick townhouse currently at 915 Royal Street, now known as the Cornstalk Hotel, dates to around 1850 and reportedly was built after Judge Francois-Xavier Martin sold the property. The hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is renowned for its famous iron cornstalk fence.

Judge Martin, considered "The Father of Louisiana Jurisprudence," was appointed to the Louisiana Supreme Court on February 1, 1815. This was less than a month after the Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815 and while New Orleans was still under martial law. After Judge Martin took his oath of office at Government House on February 6, 1815, the court adjourned until March 6, 1815.

Judge Martin's appointment came during a momentous time in the city's history. In his very first opinion, on March 20, 1815, Judge Martin upheld the constitutionality of the legislative act of December 18, 1814, which suspended civil court proceedings until May 1, 1815. Preparing for an imminent invasion by the British, General Andrew Jackson had placed New Orleans under strict martial law December 16, 1814. The Louisiana State Legislature suspended all proceedings in civil cases until May 1, 1815:

"the present crisis will oblige a great number of citizens to take up arms in the defence [sic] of the state and compel them to leave their private affairs in a state of abandonment, which may expose them to great distress, if the Legislature should not, by measures adopted to the circumstances, come to their relief.’ The 3d section next provides that ‘no civil suit or action shall be commenced, or prosecuted before any court of record, or any tribunal of the state, till the first of May next."

Judge Martin enforced the state law since the British were invading and the citizens were needed to defend the city.

In fact, at the time the act was approved, the enemy was fast approaching, and five days later the British appeared within five miles of New Orleans. Shortly afterwards, the whole militia of the state was called en masse into service, and they were not discharged until the middle of March. During most of this period, the fate of the contest was doubtful.

It was, therefore, advantageous to all parties that the administration of civil justice should be confined to cautionary steps, which were not suspended. This was beneficial to all parties. Plaintiffs were relieved from attendance upon the courts, and the same indulgence was granted to defendants.

However, Judge Martin rebuked General Jackson for imposing martial law and suspending habeas corpus, declaring:

How preposterous then the idea that a military commander may, by his own authority, destroy the tribunal established by law as the asylum of those oppressed by military despotism.

Judge Martin noted that the federal court “corroborated” the Louisiana Supreme Court decision when it fined General Jackson $1,000 for contempt of court and obstruction of justice in United States v. Jackson:

"The doctrine established, in the first part of the opinion of the Court, in the above case, is corroborated by the decision of the District Court of the United States for the Louisiana District, in the case of United States vs. Jackson, in which the defendant, having acted in opposition to it, was fined $1000."

The federal courthouse where Andrew Jackson was fined was located next door at 919 Royal Street, now the site of the Andrew Jackson Hotel.

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The Historic Garrison section of Jackson Barracks consists of the original post constructed in the 1830s. These 19 buildings, surrounded by a 12 foot wall, served four companies of US Army regulars. By the 1830s, the Army decided it needed a permanent garrison near New Orleans to act as an administrative center and serve the outlying coastal defense forts in the area. President Andrew Jackson's administration approved the site, about a mile from the former general's victory at Chalmette battlefield. At the time, it was called "The US Barracks," or "The New Orleans Barracks."

As Seminole prisoners from the wars in Florida passed through the area en route to Indian Country (Oklahoma), some were housed at Jackson Barracks. The post was also a major center of activity for the Mexican War of 1846-48. It would continue to grow and become involved in every major American action through the end of the second World War. As Louisiana National Guard Headquarters, it remains a major center of activity for emergency response as well as everyday operations in service to the state.

The post was named "Jackson Barracks" in 1866 to honor President Andrew Jackson.

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The Washington Artillery, now known as the 141st Field Artillery Regiment, is Louisiana's most historic military unit. Jackson Barracks has been its home since 1923. Part of the post-storm construction was a new and improved readiness center. Unless they are on federal overseas duty, the soldiers of the 141st drill monthly at the Barracks and mobilize for local emergencies, often in support of NOPD and by assisting citizens with commodity distribution.

The 139th Regional Support Group is also headquartered on site. It consists of a variety of support units including transportation, intelligence, military police, medical, and other functions.

Major General Glenn Curtis commands the Louisiana National Guard through emergencies and day to day activities from his office at Jackson Barracks.

After Katrina, some questioned if the barracks should be rebuilt. Since then, however, the facility has proven essential for the Southeast portion of the state during several disasters, including the Gulf Oil Spill, the river flood of 2011, the marsh fires of 2011, and Hurricane Isaac in 2012.

Since it has been a National Guard facility, Jackson Barracks has played an important role in the New Orleans community as an emergency response and military support center, and a job creator.

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In 1974, the Louisiana Military History and State Weapons Museum was established at Jackson Barracks. By the end of the decade it was housed in the old Powder Magazine, a building dating to 1837. Due to the nature of the structure (holding munitions and gunpowder), it was built a good distance from the historic garrison.

In the 1990s, the Museum was renamed the Ansel M. Stroud, Jr. Military History and Weapons Museum and was significantly expanded, including seven buildings, an artillery park, a vehicle park, and air park. The museum was severely damaged in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.

Construction on a new facility began in 2010 and was completed in late 2012. The new building contains the museum as well as the archives. The majority of the collection was salvaged and stabilized, but still requires restoration. The vehicle park, air park, and artillery park were re-established. As of early 2014, the Museum is open on a limited basis, but Guard personnel are working to get it fully operational.

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In the 1920s and 30s, the large field north of the Historic Garrison, east of Fleming Hall and Post Headquarters, was used as a polo field. Officers in the 108th Cavalry held tournaments and New Orleanians came out to watch.

Included in the new construction after Hurricane Katrina was a new office building for the adjutant general and his command staff. Major General Glenn Curtis is the 49th adjutant general of Louisiana. Former commanders include James Longstreet, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, Raymond Fleming, Raymond Hufft, O.J. Daigle, Jr., Ansel M. Stroud, Jr., and Bennett C. Landreneau.

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The current Post Headquarters buildings were built in the early 20th century and are deemed historic structures. They housed various offices over the years. Units headquartered in these buildings have included the 108th Cavalry, the 141st Field Artillery Regiment, and the 156th Infantry Regiment. Once memorialized as Deshotels Hall and Dayries Hall after former Louisiana Guard officers, they became known for their building numbers, "Building 36" and "Building 37."

Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, they were the only two buildings functioning until late 2007. White, wood-frame structures, they both contrast and complement the red brick of the other official post buildings. Building 36, now numbered 2011, functioned as the post HQ for years after Katrina. After remodeling it will become the center of operations for the State Military Department and its sister building, Building 2055 (formerly #37), will be Post HQ.

The red brick building in the middle of the two structures described above is currently Building 2033. "Building 35", its pre-Katrina numeric designation, was the center point of activity as Katrina flooded the post in 2005. Civilians rescued from nearby homes were taken there for refuge in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

Building 2033 was built in the 1990s as the State Area Command (STARC) Armory. Remodeled since Katrina, it is now intended to be Jackson Barracks' Education Center and Special Staff Offices. Upper Iowa University has a mini-campus in the building. Its mission is to aid soldiers in achieving their higher education goals. Starbase is a U.S. Military outreach program, aimed at middle school children, to nurture interest in science and technology. A daycare center is also present in the building.

Special staff offices include Inspector General, Chaplain, Staff Judge Advocate, and other soldier support operations.

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In the 1920s, Jackson Barracks was transferred from the regular Army to the state's National Guard. From 1936 to 1940, Louisiana adjutant general Raymond H. Fleming utilized the federal Works Progress Administration to provide renovation and new construction to the post. Included in the WPA project was a new headquarters building, later dedicated to the Louisiana commander.

Appointed by Governor Huey Long in 1928, General Fleming served with the Guard in World War I, commanded the Washington Artillery, and provided leadership during the Great Depression and World War II. Fleming administered the Selective Service System for Louisiana and oversaw the reorganization of the Louisiana National Guard after World War II. He also held the position of adjutant general from 1952-1956 and 1960-1964.

Fleming Hall served as the Guard's state headquarters until Hurricane Katrina. Just prior to the storm, it suffered a fire. It has since been restored and is in use as a conference building.

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The second-oldest area of the post is currently referred to as "Beauregard Drive," after the street that runs from Fleming Hall to the river levee. The land it sits on was originally purchased by the Army for use as a hospital during the Mexican War in 1846. Construction was not completed until the war was over, but the facility saw extensive use during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Those buildings were demolished afterward, but another, smaller hospital and other facilities were constructed in the same spot during World War I. In the 1930s, WPA renovations converted one of those structures into a multi-room transient officers' quarters. That building still exists and has been named after former Louisiana adjutant general (AG) Raymond F. Hufft.

Hufft, a well-known and celebrated World War II veteran, is the most decorated member of the Louisiana Guard's Hall of Fame. During the war, he was an officer in the First Special Services Force, a predecessor to today's Special Forces, and was among the first troops into Italy, France, and Germany. His tenure as Louisiana AG included the creation of the state's Special Forces units (no longer organized) and providing temporary refuge at Jackson Barracks for Hungarian refugees following the Soviet reprisal in their country in 1956. Hufft Hall was renovated after Katrina and remains in use as temporary living quarters.

Beauregard Drive is a scenic residential street with homes for officers and NCOs. The homes are considered historic, but were so damaged by Hurricane Katrina that they were demolished and rebuilt in the same style, allowing modifications only for current code compliance and hazard mitigation.

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The four buildings creating a quadrangle on the north end of the Historic Garrison originally housed enlisted soldiers. After the demolition of the original headquarters, Building 8, the structure closest to the river, served as temporary post headquarters. The quadrangle buildings currently serve as quarters for mid-ranking officers and NCOs.

The Sally Port on the east side of the quadrangle is the last remaining portion of the original post wall, which surrounded the garrison. About 12 feet high and a couple feet thick, it was not built for a siege or artillery attack, but rather potential civil unrest or a slave revolt. American authorities generally had good relations with the native Creole population, but the authorities did not completely trust them at this point. As elsewhere in the Antebellum South, the fears of a slave uprising were always present.

The remaining towers fell into disuse but were converted into unique residential space during the WPA construction and renovations of the 1930s. They remain in use as temporary VIP quarters to this day.

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The 10 large, remaining buildings on the perimeter of the original post still serve their purpose as officer and high level noncommissioned officer (NCO) quarters. Famous officers that were stationed at the post include Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, George McClellan, and Arthur MacArthur (Military Governor of the Phillipines and father of Douglass MacArthur).

As part of the original construction, the quarters were built into the defensive wall, necessitating the absence of windows on the first floor rear of the buildings. The windows that now exist in the rear of those quarters were added at a later date.

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The United States Mint was once the site of Fort St. Charles, one of the defenses built in 1792 during the Spanish period. Fort St. Charles was the largest of five fortifications surrounding the city. Spanish Governor Baron Hector de Carondelet noted that Fort St. Charles, constructed in the form of a pentagon, was built larger than the other four to accommodate troops in the event of an insurrection.

Andrew Jackson is said to have reviewed his troops in front of Fort St. Charles’ gates, before leading them to face the British on December 23, 1814 in the “Night Battle.” In the early afternoon on December 23rd, a messenger had alerted Jackson that the British had landed on the Villere plantation, nine miles below the city. Hearing that the British had landed, Jackson allegedly exclaimed:

“By the Eternal, they shall not sleep on our soil!...Gentlemen, the British are below, we must fight them to-night.”

Jackson marched his forces from Fort St. Charles to attack the British that night, surprising the unsuspecting forces. Jackson concluded that the Americans would have won the night battle if a thick fog had not rolled in. Jackson and his forces ultimately went on to defeat the British on January 8, 1815, following the better known Battle of New Orleans.

According to Greg Lambousy, Director of Collections for the Louisiana State Museum:

"In 1821 the fort was demolished, and the land was given to the City of New Orleans the following year. The area was made into a park, aptly named Jackson Square. The park remained until 1835, when the city returned it to the federal government for construction of the New Orleans branch mint . . . Purportedly, the cornerstone of the mint building was laid on the foundation of Fort St. Charles."

The Mint produced both US and Confederate currency. After the federal government occupied New Orleans during the Civil War, the building saw other uses until 1879, when it resumed coining operations. Its service as a mint ended in the early 1910s, when it began to be used for a series of other purposes, including a federal prison from 1931 to 1943. It served as a Coast Guard receiving station until the mid-1960s, when the building was transferred to state control.

Part of the Louisiana State Museum complex since 1979, the Mint houses the Louisiana Historical Center, one of the oldest and most comprehensive archives in the state. It also houses one of the largest and most significant collections of Jazz related instruments, images, and recordings in the world.

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