Did the Confederates ever consider recapturing New Orleans?

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Many people do not consider General Butler a great general. Butler did not have a large garrison at New Orleans. I am not sure if the locals would have not supported a Confederate recapture on New Orleans. So did the Confedercy give any real thought of doing so?

I will admit that holding it after recapture might have been difficult.
 
Not Really, as you said it was way to much to hold. We lost it on April 28th 1862 and really don't want it back.
 
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It would seem that is somehow the Confederates had captured New Orleans, the Union would have deverted troops and ships to recapture New Orkeans. This could have relieved pressure on other Confederate fronts.

Also I see the Confederates as being able to recruit in the New Orleans areas while at the same time ending Union recruiting there.
 
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Not Really, as you said it was way to much to hold. We lost it on April 28th 1862 and really don't want it back.

I would think that the loss of the Confederacy's largest city and international port and one of its few ship-building facilities would be of immense importance and a priority to recapture.
 
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If the Confederates could have retaken New Orleans the United States navy was never more than a day away from revisiting it. How were the Confederates going to defend the city from naval guns?
 
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And who wanted the city to pass back into Confederate hands? I doubt the blacks wanted it back in Confederate hands, nor did the immigrant dock workers and merchants. The sugar industry wanted to ship sugar. If New York had a good economy, they would sell to New York.
New Orleans was generally peaceful under US rule.
 
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Railroads, the same way it went out after NO fell.
Except General Richard Taylor though differently and did attempt to retake NO. Confederate railroads were unreliable and dangerous at best. The Fremantle Diary has some good information about that. Also NO is a strategic US naval base that can and did support the blockade of the Texas coast. The more deep water ports the Confederacy has the harder it is for the Union Navy to implement the blockade. That is why the Confederacy absolutely wanted to retake NO.
Leftyhunter
 
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And who wanted the city to pass back into Confederate hands? I doubt the blacks wanted it back in Confederate hands, nor did the immigrant dock workers and merchants. The sugar industry wanted to ship sugar. If New York had a good economy, they would sell to New York.
New Orleans was generally peaceful under US rule.
The Confederacy.
Leftyhunter
 
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If the Confederates could have retaken New Orleans the United States navy was never more than a day away from revisiting it. How were the Confederates going to defend the city from naval guns?
By buying long range cannon overseas or making them at the Tredgar Iron Works. How to transport said cannon to NO is a bit of a problem.
Leftyhunter
 
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New Orleans was a food pit. Most of their food before the war came by way of the Mississippi from the mid-west and from Texas by way of coastal shipping. The USN took away both sources of food. Even the US had problems feeding the city for a year or so after capturing it.

The city was not a hotbed of Confederate support and many of their supporters had fled when the city was taken. More were forced out under Butler. Taking the city would certainly have provided some recruits, but probably not enough to replace the casualties taken in the campaign to recapture the city.

Lastly, the Gulf blockade could be maintained from Pensacola. NO would be easy to blockade by holding the Head of the Passes, which the CS could not counter.
 
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New Orleans was a food pit. Most of their food before the war came by way of the Mississippi from the mid-west and from Texas by way of coastal shipping. The USN took away both sources of food. Even the US had problems feeding the city for a year or so after capturing it.

The city was not a hotbed of Confederate support and many of their supporters had fled when the city was taken. More were forced out under Butler. Taking the city would certainly have provided some recruits, but probably not enough to replace the casualties taken in the campaign to recapture the city.

Lastly, the Gulf blockade could be maintained from Pensacola. NO would be easy to blockade by holding the Head of the Passes, which the CS could not counter.
Well this is the same city that resented Benjamin Butler.

Richard Taylor was the only one to come up with a real viable recapture and of course NOLA would have recaptured (probably when there is peace) if there had been more successful counter offensives in the East via Maryland and the West via Kentucky in the summer and fall of 1862.

And might I add that Richard Taylor's plan was supposed to cross the Bayou Teche moving past the lightly guarded outposts and supply depots thereby recapturing New Orleans and cutting Nathaniel P. Banks army from their supplies it was approved by Jefferson Davis and James A. Seddon but Edmund Kirby Smith instead thought it should be on the Louisiana banks in the Mississippi River if I recall.
 
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Well this is the same city that resented Benjamin Butler.

Richard Taylor was the only one to come up with a real viable recapture and of course NOLA would have recaptured (probably when there is peace) if there had been more successful counter offensives in the East via Maryland and the West via Kentucky in the summer and fall of 1862.

And might I add that Richard Taylor's plan was supposed to cross the Bayou Teche moving past the lightly guarded outposts and supply depots thereby recapturing New Orleans and cutting Nathaniel P. Banks army from their supplies it was approved by Jefferson Davis and James A. Seddon but Edmund Kirby Smith instead thought it should be on the Louisiana banks in the Mississippi River if I recall.
True, but it does not change what I posted.
 
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Honestly I never even heard of Richard Taylor until I stumbled across his Wikipedia biography page and saw his plans for recapturing New Orleans, Louisiana and the 1864 Red River Campaign.

Taylor was stopped from recapturing NOLA thanks to two battles: Milliken's Bend and Young Point's both were won by the Union.

I'd say it would be interesting to look at the consequences of Richard Taylor successfully recapturing New Orleans whether it be bypassing Bayou Teche to take the rather lightly guarded city or actually winning at either Milliken's Bend or Young Point's either way it would be a massive boost for the Confederacy to retake one of their most important cities.
 
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