Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

[181] people of the State remained loyal — passively if not actively so. “In our section,” a gentleman from the lower part of the State wrote, “the excitement is confined to the politicians; the people generally being borne along with the current, and feeling the natural disposition of sustaining their section. I think that ninety-nine out of every hundred of the people sincerely hope that some plan will yet be devised to heal up the dissensions, and to settle our difficulties to the satisfaction of both the North and the South.” ¹

The popular vote at the election on the 8th of January was small. It was of such a complexion, however, that it made the secessionists confident of success — so confident that on the following day,

January 9, 1861.

prompted by advice from Slidell, Benjamin, and other representatives of the State at Washington, the Governor sent military expeditions from New Orleans to seize Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the Mississippi, below the city, then in command of Major Beauregard; also Fort Pike on Lake Pontchartrain, and the Arsenal at Baton Rouge, then in charge of Major Haskin.

The expedition against the forts down the Mississippi consisted of a part of General Palfrey's Division. They left the city in the steamer Yankee, at near midnight, cheered by a multitude on the levee and vessels. They reached Fort St. Philip at eight o'clock the next evening.

January 10.

It was in charge of a man named Dart, who had a few negroes at work there. Dart gladly gave the fort into the custody of the Louisiana Foot Rifles, who garrisoned it in the name of the State. Fort Jackson was taken possession of on the same evening, at nine o'clock. Sergeant Smith, of the National Army, gave the keys to the insurgents, under protest, and a company of the Washington Artillery took possession of the fort. At the same time, Fort Livingston, on Grand Terre Island, Barataria Bay, was seized by State troops; and on the 20th of the month, the unfinished fort on Ship Island, off the coast of Mississippi, was seized, and held by the insurgents. Another unfinished fort (Clinch) on Amelia Island, off the coast of Georgia, was taken possession of by insurgents of that State.

The troops detailed for the capture of the Government Arsenal and Barracks at Baton Rouge left New Orleans on the evening of the 9th, on the steamer National, and arrived at their destination the next evening. Baton Rouge insurgents had already prepared to attack and seize the Arsenal, but at the critical moment their courage had failed them, notwithstanding there were only eight men under arms, with Major Haskin, to defend it.

The New Orleans troops, three hundred in number, were commanded by Colonel Walton, of the Washington Artillery. They were paraded at dawn, on the morning of the 11th, and proceeded immediately to surround the property to be seized. Major Haskin had no adequate means for defense, and was compelled to surrender without offering resistance. By this success, the insurgents procured fifty thousand small arms, four howitzers, twenty heavy pieces of ordnance, two field batteries (one of 6 and the other of 12 pounders), three hundred barrels of gunpowder, and a