1st Louisiana Native Guard

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Several black officers of Company C of the 1st Louisiana Native Guard at Fort McComb, Louisiana. Harpers Weekly, January, 1863. Pictured are (left to right): Capt. Sentmanat, 2nd Lt. Lavigne, 1st Lt. Larrien, 2nd Lt. Montieu, & Capt. Davis^[1]

The 1st Louisiana Native Guard, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, was one of the first all-black regiments to fight in the Union Army during the American Civil War. A predecessor regiment by the same name existed in the Confederate Louisiana militia.

[edit] Confederate Louisiana militia predecessor

1st Louisiana Native Guard
Active	May 2, 1861–February 15, 1862
Country	Confederate States of America
Allegiance	CSA
Branch	Confederate Militia, American Civil War
Type	Infantry
Size	1135
Engagements	None

Shortly after Louisiana's secession, a new militia regiment formed on May 2, 1861, consisting mostly of "free persons of color" (gens de couleur) between the ages of 15 and 50. At that time, an estimated 10,000 African American residents of the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans had gained their freedom. This regiment was also called the Louisiana Native Guard. Though ten per cent of its members would later join the Union Army's 1st Louisiana Native Guard, the two were separate military units.

Andre Cailloux, who in 1863 became a hero of the Siege of Port Hudson as a Union officer, served as a lieutenant in this Confederate Louisiana militia regiment of the Native Guard. The Confederate unit was the first of any North American unit to have African American officers^[2].

The South did not use this Confederate Native Guard regiment in any military action, and failed to provide it with uniforms or arms. Most of the men in the unit used their own resources to obtain weapons and uniforms which were displayed in a parade in New Orleans on January 8, 1862^[3]. It was largely considered part of the Confederacy's "public relations" campaign. The Native Guard tried to gain notoriety by offering their service to escort Union prisoners, captured from Manassas, through New Orleans. Despite the Confederacy choosing white militiamen instead, the Native Guard still participated in two other grand reviews. When the Louisiana State Legislature passed a law in January 1862 that reorganized the militia by conscripting “all the free white males capable of bearing arms… irrespective of nationality”, the 1st Louisiana Native Guard was also affected. It was forced to disband on February 15, 1862, and many of its white officers reassigned to the new Confederate regiments.

Companies of Confederate 1st Louisiana Native Guard prior to disbanding in 1862:

[edit] Union regiment formed

New Orleans fell to Admiral David Farragut in April 1862, and Union Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler then headquartered his 12,000-man Army of the Gulf in New Orleans. On September 27, 1862, Butler organized the Union Army's 1st Louisiana Native Guard regiment, some of whose members had also been part of the previous Confederate Native Guard regiment. The regiment's initial strength was 1,000 men.

Former Confederate Lt. Andre Cailloux was named Captain of Company E of the 1st Louisana Native Guard, whose membership consisted primarily of "free men of color" from New Orleans. During this period, some runaway slaves from nearby plantations joined the regiment, but the Union Army's official policy discouraged such enrollments. In November 1862, the number of runaway slaves seeking to enlist became so great that a second regiment and then, a month later, a third regiment were formed.

The field grade officers of these regiments (colonels, lieutenant colonels, and majors) were all white men. The line officers were all black, including P. B. S. Pinchback. Spencer Stafford, formerly Butler's military "mayor" of New Orleans, was the original commander of the 1st Louisiana Native Guard.

[edit] Banks purges black line officers

When Nathaniel P. Banks later replaced Butler as Commander of the Department of the Gulf, he began a systematic campaign to purge all the black line officers from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Regiments of the Louisiana Native Guard. He succeeded in securing the resignations of all the black line officers in the 2nd Regiment in February 1863, but most of the black line officers in the 1st Regiment and 3rd Regiment remained.

[edit] The Siege of Port Hudson

From its formation in September 1862 until early May 1863, the 1st Louisiana Native Guard largely performed fatigue duty–chopping wood, gathering supplies, and digging earthworks. From January 1863 to May 1863, it also guarded the railway depots that ran along the rail line between Algiers (now part of New Orleans) to Brashear City (now called Morgan City). By this time, its numbers had diminished to 500.

In mid-1863, the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, along with the 3rd Louisiana Native Guard, had its first chance at combat and participated in the first assault at the Siege of Port Hudson on May 27, as well as the second assault on June 14. Captain Cailloux died heroically in the first assault. His body, as well as those of the other members of the 1st Louisiana Native Guard who fell with him that day, was left on the field of battle until the surrender of Port Hudson on July 9, 1863. Cailloux received a hero's funeral in New Orleans on July 29, 1863.

[edit] Dissolution and legacy

In June, 1863, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Louisiana Native Guard Regiments were dissolved and folded into the newly formed Corps d'Afrique. Perhaps 200 to 300 of the original 1,000 members of the 1st Louisiana Native Guard made this transition.

Poor treatment by white soldiers and difficult field conditions had led to the resignation of many officers and the desertion of enlisted soldiers. In April, 1864 the Corps d'Afrique was dissolved and its members joined the newly organized 73rd and 74th Regiments of the United States Colored Troops of the Union Army. By the end of the war, 175,000 African Americans served in 170 regiments of the United States Colored Troops. In contrast to the 1st Louisiana Native Guards organization, all field and line officers of the United States Colored Troops were white. By the end of the war, approximately 100 of the original 1,000 members of the First Louisiana Native Guard were members of the 73rd and 74th Regiments.

There is a continuing legend that the Confederate Army's Louisiana Native Guard regiment organized in May 1861 was reformed in its entirety as the Union Army's 1st Louisiana Native Guard regiment in September 1862. This assumption is incorrect. Of the nearly one thousand enlisted Confederate Native Guard members, only 107 were recorded to have enlisted in the Union "Native Guard" and only ten of 36 officers served the Union. The legend of continuity of regiments is considered by many to have been a propaganda ploy by Union General Benjamin F. Butler. ^[5]

[edit] References

• Louisiana Native Guards experience during the Civil War
• Hollandsworth, James G., The Louisiana Native Guards, LSU Press, 1996.
• Tretheway, Natasha. Native Guard.Houghton-Mifflin, 2006.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Black Officers of the Native Guards
2. ^ Louisiana Fast Facts and Trivia
3. ^ Bergeron, Arhur W., Jr. Louisianans in the Civil War, "Louisiana's Free Men of Color in Gray", University of Missouri Press, 2002, p. 105-106.
4. ^ Bergeron, Arthur W., Jr. Louisianans in the Civil War, "Louisiana's Free Men of Color in Gray", University of Missouri Press, 2002, p. 106-107.
5. ^ "Thank God My Regiment an African One: The Civil War Diary of Colonel Nathan W. Daniels," C. P. Weaver, Editor, Louisiana State University Press,1998