New Orleans was the largest city--and one of the richest--in the
Confederacy, protected in part by Fort Jackson, which was just
sixty-five miles down the Mississippi River. On April 27, 1862,
Confederate soldiers at Fort Jackson rose up in mutiny against their
commanding officers. New Orleans fell to Union forces soon thereafter.
Although the Fort Jackson mutiny marked a critical turning point in the
Union's campaign to regain control of this vital Confederate financial
and industrial center, it has received surprisingly little attention
from historians. Michael Pierson examines newly uncovered archival
sources to determine why the soldiers rebelled at such a decisive
moment.
The mutineers were soldiers primarily recruited from New Orleans's large
German and Irish immigrant populations. Pierson shows that the new
nation had done nothing to encourage poor white men to feel they had a
place of honor in the southern republic. He argues that the mutineers
actively sought to help the Union cause. In a major reassessment of the
Union administration of New Orleans that followed, Pierson demonstrates
that Benjamin "Beast" Butler enjoyed the support of many white Unionists
in the city. Pierson adds an urban working-class element to debates over
the effects of white Unionists in Confederate states. With the personal
stories of soldiers appearing throughout, Mutiny at Fort Jackson
presents the Civil War from a new perspective, revealing the
complexities of New Orleans society and the Confederate experience.
