s itself was formally established, and must
continue on past the time when the earlier territorial organization
became merged or lost and the main body of the corps was sent into
the Shenandoah, down to the peace, and the final muster of the last
regiment.

If hitherto less known and thus less considered than the proud
record of those great corps of the Armies of the Potomac, of the
Tennessee, and of the Cumberland, on whom in the fortune of war
fell the heat and burthen of so many pitched battles, whose colors
bear the names of so many decisive victories, yet the story of the
Nineteenth Army Corps is one whose simple facts suffice for all
that need to told or claimed of valor, of achievement, of sacrifice,
or of patient endurance. I shall, therefore, attempt neither eulogy
nor apology, nor shall I feel called upon to undertake to criticise
the actions or the failures of the living or the dead, save where
such criticism may prove to be an essential part of the narrative.
From the brows of other soldiers, no one of us could ever wish to
pluck the wreaths so dearly won, so honorably worn; yet, since the
laurel grows wild on every hill-side in this favored land, we may
without trespass be permitted to gather a single spray or two to
decorate the sacred places where beneath the cypresses and the
magnolias of the lowlands of Louisiana, or under the green turf
among the mountains of Virginia, reposes all that was mortal of so
many thousands of our brave and beloved comrades.

THE NINETEENTH ARMY CORPS.

CHAPTER I.
NEW ORLEANS.

The opening of the Mississippi and the capture of New Orleans formed
important parts of the first comprehensive plan of campaign,
conceived and proposed by Lieutenant-General Scott soon after the
outbreak of the war. When McClellan was called to Washington to
command the Army of the Potomac, one of his earliest communications
to the President set forth in general terms his plans for the
suppression of the Rebellion. Of these plans, also, the capture
of New Orleans formed an integral and important part. Both Scott
and McClellan contemplated a movement down the river by a strong
column. However nothing had been done by either toward carrying
out this project, when, in September, 1861, the Navy Department
took up the idea of an attack on New Orleans from the sea.

At the time of the secession of Louisiana, New Orleans was not only
the first city in wealth, population, and importance in the