1st Louisiana Regulars

Following the victory of Lincoln in the 1860 election, Louisiana Governor Thomas O. Moore moved rapidly to assure the secession of his state from the union. In early December, he called a special session of the state legislature, which arranged for the election of delegates to a secession convention and acceded to his request to create a special military board responsible for arms purchasing and distribution in addition to authorizing the funding of volunteer companies, at least one for each parish.[2] Among the members of the military board were sugar planter and former army officer Braxton Bragg, a veteran of the Mexican–American War,[3] and lawyer and cotton broker Daniel W. Adams, who had no military experience.[4]

The New Orleans army barracks in the 1860s

After South Carolina became the first state to secede on 20 December, Moore ordered the seizure by militia of the Federal Baton Rouge Arsenal and Barracks, Forts Jackson, St. Philip, and Pike, as well as the army barracks below New Orleans on 8 January. The forts were quickly handed over by the lone ordnance sergeants in charge of them on 10 January and Bragg forced the surrender of the outnumbered arsenal garrison on the same day.[2] Meanwhile, militia officers Charles MacPherson Bradford, a district attorney,[5] and John A. Jaquess (sometimes spelled Jacques), a police officer and former filibuster, each raised companies that were initially known known as the 1st and 2nd Companies of the Louisiana Infantry.[6] These companies were officially authorized under a plan to raise 500 regulars for four-month terms of service on the next day.[7] Bradford and Jaquess had both served as junior officers in the Mexican–American War.[5][8]

Bradford took control of the New Orleans Marine Hospital at the New Orleans army barracks on 12 January and had its patients removed to another hospital in order to free space for newly mustered in regulars, an action much sensationalized in Northern newspapers. Moore authorized the enlistment of Bradford and Jaquess' companies as Companies A and B, respectively, of what was designated as the 1st Regiment, Louisiana Infantry, which also contained three other newly organized companies, by 25 January. These companies relieved the militiamen in their occupation of the forts and the Baton Rouge Arsenal and Barracks. The state convention officially voted to secede on 26 January, although Moore's actions had already essentially taken the state out of the Union, and Louisiana almost immediately joined the Confederate States of America.[9] In response to the secession vote, Moore ordered the seizure of the only remaining unoccupied Federal post, Fort Macomb, which was carried out on 28 January by a Captain Henry A. Clinch's Company C of the 1st Louisiana.[10][11]

The 1st Louisiana Regulars were organized on 5 February 1861 in accordance with an ordinance passed at the state secession convention to establish the Louisiana State Army, a standing army under Bragg's command consisting of an infantry and an artillery regiment modeled on the United States Regular Army, subject to the same discipline as a regular unit. The ordinance stipulated that the infantry regiment would include eight companies with ninety privates each in addition to officers and sergeants.[3][12] The men of the regiment enlisted for three years of service rather than the single year of the volunteers, and unlike the latter, could not elect their own officers. Instead, Adley H. Gladden was appointed colonel, Adams lieutenant colonel, and Bradford major. Gladden had commanded a regiment in combat during the Mexican–American War. Recruited in New Orleans,[13] the regiment included a large number of immigrants, and was described by one soldier of the 19th Louisiana as being "composed exclusively of Irish".[14] Immigrants joining the Louisiana Regulars were often unskilled laborers in civilian life, which placed them at the bottom of the social hierarchy, resulting in economic motivations for enlistment and willingness to enlist for long service terms, in contrast to volunteers.[15]

An item in the pro-secessionist Daily Delta exhorting men to join the regiment, April 1861

With a strength of roughly 860 men, the regiment transferred to the Provisional Army of the Confederate States on 13 March. During this period the men who enlisted in January were discharged, including those of Jaquess' company, and new companies raised to replace them.[16] By April, prospective recruits were enticed by the reduction of the enlistment term to one year, standard for volunteer units, and a $10 bounty.[17][18] In early April, the regiment was ordered to Pensacola on the Florida Gulf Coast where the Confederates were blockading Union-held Fort Pickens, after the latter received reinforcements, breaking an understanding between the garrison and the Confederates that the garrison would not accept reinforcements if they were not attacked.[19] Due to these movements, the strengths of the Union garrison and the Confederate forces under the command of Bragg at Pensacola were nearly equivalent, resulting in demands from the Confederate government for troops to augment Bragg's force.[20]

The dispatch of the regiment was initially opposed by Moore due to his fears that the Union would attack New Orleans, but Confederate Secretary of War LeRoy Pope Walker's insistence that the threat was nonexistent prevailed.[21] As only Companies A, B, and C had finished recruiting, Moore appealed to volunteer units to complete the regiment. The three complete companies departed for Pensacola on 11 April, followed a week later by the five volunteer companies that responded, the recruitment being aided by a surge in enlistments after the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter began the war in earnest.[22] The companies spent the next several weeks drilling after their arrival in Florida. The remaining seven companies of the 1st Regulars arrived at Pensacola by late May, the regiment having been expanded to ten companies in keeping with standard Confederate practice, and the volunteers were transferred to Virginia as the 1st Louisiana Infantry Battalion.[1]

As 1861 turned to summer and then fall, the 1st Louisiana Regulars continued drilling while serving as cannoneers for the heavy artillery batteries at Pensacola in rotations. Bragg took care to avoid provoking military action, ensuring that Pensacola remained a quiet sector during this period.[19] A series of command changes began when Bradford resigned on 23 July, resulting in the promotion of Company D commander Jaquess to major. Gladden was promoted to brigade command on 10 September and succeeded by Adams, allowing Jaquess to move up to lieutenant colonel and Company A commander Frederick H. Farrar to major.[1]

Pensacola Bay fortifications, 1861–1862

After the privateer schooner Judah was burned in a Union raid on the night of 13 to 14 September, Bragg launched a retaliatory sortie against the Union troops on Santa Rosa Island on the night of 8 October. Companies A and B of the 1st Louisiana formed the 400-man 2nd Battalion of the thousand-man force commanded by Brigadier General Richard H. Anderson together with three companies from the 7th Alabama and two from the 1st Florida.[23] The battalion, led by Colonel James Patton Anderson, landed from a steamer along with the rest of the force on a beach four miles east of Fort Pickens. Patton Anderson was directed to advance south through the waist of the island and then turn west when he reached the south beach. This movement aimed to capture the Union pickets and isolate Fort Pickens from the camp a mile east of the fort where half of the 6th New York Infantry were located.[24]

After a picket discovered the Confederate approach early in the morning of 9 October, the camp was charged by Colonel John K. Jackson's battalion and its occupants fled. Patton Anderson's troops joined Jackson's in looting the abandoned tents, while Union forces from Fort Pickens responded. To avoid being cut off, the Confederates retreated back to the beach to depart, but were delayed by a jammed propeller on one of the transports, allowing the Union pursuit to catch up. Crowded onto the decks of the transports, the Confederates were subjected to a withering fire, which they returned, and were able to get out of range after the propeller was freed.[25] Company B lost one man killed, one died of wounds, and one severely wounded.[23]

The Union commander struck back with a bombardment against the Confederate positions on 22 and 23 November. Companies G and H and a detachment of the regiment, all under the command of Jaquess, manned the batteries at the Navy Yard and opened up a return fire,[26] but did not inflict much damage on Fort Pickens due to lack of gunnery practice caused by shell shortages. Adams held the troops not needed to serve the guns in readiness to repulse a possible Union landing. Fort McRee suffered severe damage,[27] but the Navy Yard batteries were relatively untouched.[28] Pensacola remained quiet for the next few weeks until 1 January 1862, when a steamer docking at the Navy Yard drew Union fire, causing the inebriated Richard Anderson, in command while Bragg was away on inspection, to order a return bombardment. When Bragg returned he reprimanded Anderson, who had apparently forgotten about the inferiority of the Confederate artillery exposed in the November exchange, for wasting ammunition.[29][30]

After the Battle of Shiloh ended, Adams never returned to the 1st Louisiana Regulars, being promoted to command of another brigade. Jaquess succeeded him as colonel on 23 May, with Farrar becoming lieutenant colonel and Company F Captain James Strawbridge major. The regiment went on to participate in the Siege of Corinth between 29 April and 11 June before retreating with the army to Tupelo, Mississippi. By 30 June, the regiment was assigned to Colonel Arthur M. Manigault's brigade of Withers' Reserve Corps as part of Bragg's army, but was on detached duty.[59] In July, Bragg entrained the infantry of the army for Chattanooga, Tennessee via Mobile, while the regiment marched there overland with the army wagon trains.[1] When the 21st Louisiana Infantry Regiment, its strength much reduced by disease and desertion, was disbanded by Bragg's order on 25 July, the 1st Louisiana Regulars received at least 99 men from the regiment. These men ultimately proved unreliable as a high percentage of them later took the oath of allegiance to the Union after being captured.[60]

The 1st Louisiana Regulars were part of Withers' division during the Confederate invasion of Kentucky between 28 August and 19 October. It missed the Battle of Perryville because Withers' Division was detached to support other Confederate forces near Lexington on the day before Perryville, 7 October. The regiment retreated into Tennessee with the army and encamped at Tullahoma. It suffered 102 casualties at the Battle of Stones River between 31 December and 2 January 1863. Farrar was mortally wounded in the battle and died the day after it ended. For his conduct at Stones River, Jaquess was court martialed and cashiered on 13 February, being replaced as colonel by Strawbridge. Strawbridge, having moved up to lieutenant colonel after Farrar's death, became the final colonel of the regiment. Major F.M. Kent became lieutenant colonel and Company H Captain S.S. Batchelor became major. After supporting the army reserve artillery in the spring and summer of that year, the 1st Louisiana Regulars were temporarily consolidated with the 8th Arkansas Infantry to fight in the Battle of Chickamauga between 19 and 20 September.[1]

Due to further losses at Chickamauga, the regiment was assigned as army headquarters guard during the Chattanooga campaign, reduced to less than a hundred men. Continuing headquarters guard duty into the early spring of 1864 at Dalton, Georgia, the regiment joined Randall L. Gibson's Louisiana brigade in April. Kent died on 2 April and was replaced by Batchelor; Company I Captain Douglas West became major. It participated in the marches of the Atlanta campaign but saw little action until the 28 July Battle of Ezra Church. Among those killed at Ezra Church was Company G Captain William H. Sparks. After the fall of Atlanta, the regiment participated in the Franklin–Nashville Campaign, including the Battle of Nashville between 15 and 16 December.[1]

After the defeat of the army at Nashville, the regiment and its brigade were sent to Mobile in February 1865. There, the regiment was consolidated with the 16th and 20th Louisiana Infantry and the 4th Louisiana Battalion during the month to form a combined unit under 16th Louisiana Colonel Robert Lindsay that totalled 103 effectives.[61] The regiment fought at the Battle of Spanish Fort between 27 March and 8 April. After the evacuation from Mobile, they surrendered at Gainesville, Alabama on 12 May. During the war, the regiment's dead numbered 176 killed in action, 52 of disease, two by accident, one murdered, and two executed.[1]

• List of Louisiana Confederate Civil War units