ess than 15,000.
From these it was indispensable to take one full and strong regiment
for Key West and the Tortugas, another for Pensacola, and a third
for Forts Jackson and Saint Philip. This disposed of 2,000; 2,500
more was the least force that could be expected to do the police and
guard duty of a hostile town so great and populous as New Orleans,
containing the main depots of the army; thus the movable force of
infantry was cut down to 8,500, or, as Banks states it, 10,000,
and for any operations that should uncover New Orleans, would be
but half that number.

In the reorganization of the Nineteenth Corps, thus rendered
necessary, the Second division was broken up and ceased to exist,
its First and Third brigades being transferred to the Third division,
the temporary command of which was given to Dwight, but only for
a short time. The First and Third brigades of the First division
were thrown into one; Weitzel's brigade at first resumed its original
name of the Reserve brigade, and a new Second brigade was provided
by taking Gooding's from the Third division, so that when a fortnight
later Weitzel's brigade was restored to the First division, it
became the Third brigade. The Fourth division, like the Third,
was reduced to two brigades. Major-General William B. Franklin,
who had just come from the North under orders from Washington, was
assigned to command of the First division, while Emory was to retain
the Third and Grover the Fourth; but when the Thirteenth Corps
began to arrive, Banks found himself in the anomalous position of
commanding a military department within whose limits two army corps
were to serve, one, numerically the smaller, under his own immediate
orders, the other under its proper commander. The approaching
completion of the organization of the Corps d'Afrique would add a
third element. It was therefore found convenient on every account
to name an immediate commander of the Nineteenth Corps, and for
this post Franklin's rank, service, and experience plainly indicated
him. The assignment was made on the 15th of August, and Franklin
took command at Baton Rouge on the 20th. Then Weitzel was designated
to command the First division. However, there were during the next
few months, among the commanders of all grades, so many changes,
due to illness or absence, that only confusion could follow the
attempt to tell them all.

The artillery of the corps was redistributed to correspond with
the