Fort Jackson: 1862

[RaggedAssSecond]

Besides the Saint Mary's Cannoneers and detachments from Companies B and D of the 1st Louisiana Heavy, were any Confederate Infantry units stationed at Fort Jackson in 1862?

It's my understanding that many of the artillerymen were German and Irish immigrants. Were they disillusioned with the Confederacy from day one when they entered Confederate service? Did any join the Union Army after the surrender?

 

[RedRover]

Companies H and I of the 22nd Louisiana Volunteer Infantry (later redesignated the 21st), and Company I, 23rd Louisiana Volunteer Infantry (later redesignated the 22nd) were also posted at Fort Jackson in 1862.

They were all employed as heavy artillery at the fort. The remainder of these units were later employed as heavy artillery at Vicksburg.

And the heavy artillery companies were armed too.


About 250 of the Confederate garrison, loaded muskets in hand, apparently mutinied against their officers after the post was surrounded, and marched out to surrender. The St. Mary's Cannoneers mostly remained under charge of their officers to surrender formally shortly after.

Apparently some of the Confederate veterans of the action at Fort Jackson did subsequently join the US forces. One Thomas Graham of the 1st LA Arty. among them, while paroled, enlisted in the 7th Maine Volunteers. He was subsequently captured by CS forces and executed etc.

 

[Stryker65]

Besides the Saint Mary's Cannoneers and detachments from Companies B and D of the 1st Louisiana Heavy, were any Confederate Infantry units stationed at Fort Jackson in 1862?

The following troops constituted the garrison of Fort Jackson:
- Company H, 22nd LA: Lt. T. J. Royster
- Company I, 22nd LA: Capt. Frederick Peter
- Company I, 23rd LA: Capt. Samuel Jones
- St. Mary's (LA) Cannoneers: Capt. Florian O. Cornay
- Company D, 1st LAHA (manning 32-lb gun on riverfront): Lts. James Gaines and Edward D. Woodlief
- Company E, 1st LAHA (manning heavy guns): Capt. James Anderson (w), Lts. Abner N. Ogden, Jr., Beverly Kennedy, and William T. Mumford
- Company H, 1st LAHA (manning 42-lb gun en barbette): Lts. Richard Agar and Eugene Baylor
- Company A, LA Sharpshooters and Swamp Hunters: Capt. W. G. Mullen
Colonel Edward Higgins, commanding Fort Jackson, had also under his direction the forces at the Water Battery:
- Company D, 22nd LA: Capt. Richard L. Robertson, Jr.
- Detachment St. Mary's (LA) Cannoneers: Lt. George Foot
- Company B, 1st LAHA: Capt. William B. Robertson
- Detachment Company D, 1st LAHA: Capt. Rufus J. Bruce

(For reference, the forces at Fort St. Philip were 3 companies of infantry and 3 of artillery.)

It's my understanding that many of the artillerymen were German and Irish immigrants. Were they disillusioned with the Confederacy from day one when they entered Confederate service? Did any join the Union Army after the surrender?

There were a bunch in the New Orleans militia that switched sides immediately after the city fell. I can't recall exactly but I believe the Foreign Brigade, Brigadier General Paul Juge commanding, served originally as a Louisiana Militia unit but, after the city fell, offered their services to Ben Butler, who used them to police the city for a couple weeks.