y became a menace with its increasing Confederate
batteries, and Mobile and a dozen camps near the city made the
condition alarming. No help coming from the North, General Butler
turned to the free men of color in the city for aid, and as usual,
they responded gallantly to his appeal.

The free people of color in Louisiana then furnished the first colored
contingent of the Federal Army, just as they had furnished the first
colored contingent of the Confederate Army.[95] The army records
likewise show that Louisiana furnished more colored troops for the war
than any other State. By the 27th of September, 1862, a full regiment
of free men of color entered the service of the government, many of
them being taken over from the State militia. It was in the beginning
called the First Regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards. In June,
1863, its designation was changed to the First Regiment Corps
D'Afrique, and later to the 73d Regiment U. S. C. Infantry. In
October, 1862, another regiment was formed and the following month a
regiment of heavy artillery was organized. About the same time a
fourth regiment of men of color answered the call. Gen. Butler was
succeeded in Louisiana by General Banks, who was so pleased with the
appearance and drill of the colored regiments, that he issued an order
for the organization of more in 1863, contemplating 18 regiments,
comprising infantry, artillery, and cavalry. These were entirely
officered by colored men, at first, but, as Col. Lewis tersely puts
it, after the battle of Port Hudson,[97] a "steeple-chase was made by
the white men to take our places."[98] These troops thereafter
acquitted themselves with great honor in this battle and also at that
of Milliken's Bend.

The Emancipation Proclamation of January, 1863, was a most complicated
matter in Louisiana, for the reason that out of the forty-eight
parishes in the State, thirteen were under federal control, and
consequently the slaves there were left in their original state. Many
of the masters even in those parishes where the slaves were declared
emancipated sent their most valuable slaves to Alabama and Texas,
some of them themselves fleeing with them. In parishes far removed
from Union headquarters, news of the Emancipation Proclamation did not
reach the slaves until long after it had been issued. Even then, in
many cases, the proclamation had to be read at the point of the sword,
federal soldiers compelling the slave owners to tell