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to recapture the place.
On the 10th of June, Beauregard's armies commenced to scatter.
A great many conscripts were disbanded; and they came to New Orleans, not as paroled soldiers but as stragglers from the Confederate army.
As portions of Beauregard's army might be sent down to make an attack on the city,--as they afterwards were under Breckinridge,--it was necessary for me to be in readiness.
The only thing that could make such an attack successful was an organized force rising upon my rear in New Orleans.
itself. I concluded to find out who in the city were loyal and who disloyal, and have that made a matter of record.
Again, I knew the confiscation acts were pending in Congress and would soon be passed.
By these the property of disloyal men would be confiscated by the government.
I reasoned that as soon as the confiscation commenced, every man would claim he had always been loyal and would prove it by his neighbors, who were as disloyal as himself, and so recover his property — as has since been done to the extent of millions.
I determined that every man who chose to take the oath of allegiance and so declare himself, should have an opportunity to do it, and, while forced upon no man, it should be taken by every man who desired to hold any office or position under the United States or to receive any special favor of the United States except the protection of person, property, and liberty.
The inhabitants of New Orleans at this time might be thus classed: Union men; rebels; foreigners friendly to the United States; foreigners sympathizing with the Confederates; soldiers from Beauregard's army, some inclined to submission and some not so inclined.
These soldiers numbered several thousands, and it was necessary to have them singled out and either paroled or confined for refusing to be paroled.
To put on record the loyal and the disloyal, I issued General Order No. 41.
This order required that the oath of allegiance prescribed by law should be taken by every person who was a citizen of the United States Those who had resided in the country five years, though foreign born, should be deemed citizens if they had not sought protection of their government within that time.
All foreigners
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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