Description: 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--who had been primarily recruited from New Orleans's large German and Irish immigrant populations--rebelled at such a decisive moment. 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.
Review Quotes: ""Mutiny at Fort Jackson" makes a significant, original contribution to the field of Civil War history. Identifying the home front as crucial to understanding the course of the Civil War and its impact on American society, Pierson expands the burgeoning study of Southern Unionism with a sophisticated analysis of Unionism in New Orleans's ethnically diverse, urban wage economy. This book will interest Civil War enthusiasts as well as students and scholars."--Victoria Bynum, author of "The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War"