MAIN EVENT!
AN AMERICAN CIVIL WAR REENACTMENT OF CAPTAIN ANDRE CAILLOUX'S HISTORIC FUNERAL PROCESSION
On July 29, 1863, tens of thousands of residents of New Orleans made their presence known for the largest funeral procession the city had ever seen. The 3 mile procession covered a good bit of the city, winding its way through the 7th ward, the entire French Quarter, through the CBD and back up and around ending at St. Louis Cemetery No. 2 on Bienville Street. In addition to hundreds of soldiers, the funeral procession of Captain Cailloux included thirty-seven mutual aid society groups with the Société d’Economie et d’Assistance Mutuelle among them. The mutual assistance Société held meetings at Economy Hall in the Trémé neighborhood; and the president, undertaker Pierre Casanave, provided the horse-drawn hearse. Other Economie members acted as pallbearers of Cailloux’s U.S. flag-draped coffin.
THE MAN THAT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE BURIED:
When Union General Benjamin Butler called for black men to form a Louisiana regiment of black soldiers, Cailloux was one of the first to enlist and was given the rank of captain. At first called the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, the corps soon became known as the Corps d’Afrique. As recently freed men flocked to the city, a second and a third regiment was added. These regiments had white commanders but André Cailloux remained in charge of his regiment which was deployed at the Seige of Port Hudson under General Nathaniel Banks. Cailloux was killed on the fifth day, bravely charging ahead and calling out encouragement to his men in French and in English. Although the Confederates allowed a brief truce so the Union could collect their dead, Banks claimed he had no dead and did not allow for the collection of the fallen soldiers of the Corps d’Afrique. André Cailloux’s body lay on the battlefield, decomposing in the Louisiana summer sun, for 47 days. When his remains were collected, he was identified only by his ring. Thousands of people attended his full military funeral. The following year, an American flag stained with the hero’s blood draped the podium of Fredrick Douglass at the National Negro Convention.
RECLAIMING CAILLOUX'S DEATH: On July 29, 2023 we held a small commemorative funeral procession in honor the 160th anniversary (see Phase One for pics). We announced that we would be reclaiming André Cailloux's death date.
