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| B. F. Tisdale and Eliza Pratt Tisdale with son William Pratt Tisdale, 1862 |
This photo of B. F. Tisdale is a Crayon Portrait, an enlargement which was enhanced by the photographer with conte crayon, chalk, charcoal, or watercolor. This type of portrait was made from the 1860s into the early 1900s. Crayon Portraits were often made from one-of-a-kind photos, such as Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, or Tintypes, so that several family members could have a copy. The photo of Eliza and baby Willie Tisdale in early 1862 may have been a Tintype. (Originals, Helen Tisdale Davis family)
Belle's
mother gave birth to William Pratt Tisdale at 6 o'clock A. M. on
November 1, 1861. He was named after his Grandfather Pratt. His birth
was registered on January 20, 1862 by his father B. F. Tisdale and
the printed form filled in: “the Twentieth of January in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty two and the first of
the Independence of the Confederate States of America...” The
family was living at 234 Calliope Street in New Orleans. (Orleans
Parish Birth Records, Volume 29, page 692)
We
do not find the Tisdale family in the 1860 census. We do not know if
Eliza and the children stayed in New Orleans during the occupation or
fled to the Pratt's Oakland Plantation east of Baton Rouge. No
stories of the war came down in our branch of the family. There was
only a photo of a young man in uniform and an obituary of a cousin to
hint at what was to come.
When
Major Mansfield Lovell took charge of Louisiana and Mississippi in
October 1861, he found “not a gun to spare.” He started on
improving defenses at Fort Jackson and St. Philip. Work on
construction of a raft and chain barricade across the river between
the forts was pushed forward and completed in December 1861. Two new
ironclad ships, the Louisiana and the Mississippi, were
under construction. There was a shortage of metal at the foundries
trying to manufacture cannons. Worst of all were shortages of guns
and powder. Lovell complained, “New Orleans is about defenseless.”
(Winters, p. 79)
Before
secession New Orleans was one of the world's busiest ports, second
only to New York City. When Lincoln ordered the blockade of all
Southern ports after the surrender of Fort Sumter in April, shipment
of cotton ceased. (Winters, p. 44) Even though some vessels
succeeded in running the blockade, the drop in trade severely
affected the city. Gold and silver disappeared and Confederate
Treasury notes became currency. (Winters, p. 53-54) Charles Dufour
writes in his book The Night the War was Lost that small coins
were so scarce coffeehouses and merchants issued change in the form
of tickets good in trade. George Washington Cable, who was working as
a cashier, wrote, “The current joke was that you could pass the
label of an olive oil bottle, because it was greasy, smelt bad, and
bore an autograph- Plagniol Freres, if I remember rightly.”
(Dufour, p. 113)
The
Union blockade of the Mississippi River tightened and there were
massive shortages. Prices rose higher and higher. Miss Clara Solomon
wrote in her diary that by September she had only bread and molasses
for supper. (Winters, p. 54) There were shortages of needles, thread,
and cloth. The Ladies' Sewing Circles that had been making clothes
for the Confederate soldiers were now cutting up tablecloths and
petticoats to make bandages. “Even little girls were kept busy
trotting around their neighborhoods with subscription lists for
various companies, some seeking a flag, ,others equipment, and still
others uniforms. (Dufour, p. 36) Several newspapers ceased
publication and those that remained cut back to one issue a week
because of paper shortages. (Dufour, p. 112) The Tisdale family would have a very
simple Christmas that year.
At
midnight on December 28 Belle's family was awakened by a huge
explosion “which shook buildings all over the city, upsetting
furniture and shattering windowpanes.” The powder mill in the old
Marine Hospital across the river had blown up. The True Delta
reported that “A pillar of flame shot up to the sky for an instant
illuminating the whole heavens, and then came the noise and the
shock. The Crescent
said: “The explosion was tremendous, destroying the building and
shaking the earth for miles around...” (Dufour, p. 121) The
shortage of gun powder was now critical.
Gov.
Moore regretted that he had sent off so many of his Louisiana
volunteers. A new militia act was passed on January 23, 1862
ordering all free white males between 18 and 45 years of age capable
of bearing arms to enroll in the State Militia. (Winters, p. 72) B.
F. Tisdale was 38 years old. His service record says he enlisted as a
Private in Company B of the Confederate Guards Regiment, Louisiana
Militia, on March 8, 1862. His brother in law, Marion Pratt, joined
the same regiment and they were among those “transferred by Gov.
Thomas O. Moore to Major General Mansfield Lovell, C. S. A., for
local defense of the City of New Orleans.” (Compiled Service
Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the
State of Louisiana, NARA M320, 586957, Record Group 109, Roll 0376,
familysearch.org, accessed 9/13/2014)
On
the same day that Belle's father enlisted Union troopships arrived at
Ship Island off Biloxi. Rumors of invasion spread through the city.
The river was at flood stage and a windstorm damaged the raft
barricade at the forts below New Orleans. The biggest fear was that
the gunboats would succeed in passing the forts and attack the city. The barricade was soon repaired. Martial Law was declared in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, and
Plaquemine Parishes. (Winters, p. 80)
Many
soldiers from Louisiana took part in the early battles of the war and
spirits were running high with reports of victories, but in April
1862 after the battle at Shiloh, “the reality of war was brought
home to the state. For two weeks after the battle, trains arrived in
New Orleans carrying dead and wounded from that
battlefield....”(Taylor, p. 90)
Lovell's
appeal to Gov. Moore for 10,000 militia for defense of New Orleans
was answered by only 3,000 men, the rest having been sent to P. G. T.
Beauregard. Less than 1,200 were armed with muskets. The rest had
shotguns or were unarmed. Some were ordered to Fort Jackson. Most
were stationed at Chalmette. There they had a battery of ten 32 pound
28” cannon, half on each side of the river, but only enough
ammunition for 20 rounds per gun. (Winters, p. 84) That may be where
B. F. Tisdale and Marion Pratt were sent.
On
April 18 Flag Officer David Farragut with 17 warships, the largest fleet
the U. S. had ever assembled, began bombardment of Fort Jackson and
Fort St. Philip. Confederate Secretary of the Navy Mallory, ordered
most of the ships at New Orleans up river, convinced that the forts
were strong enough and that New Orleans would not fall. (Winters, p.
82) (Dufour, p. 216)
“After
three days of intense anxiety, New Orleans on Easter Sunday was full
of agitated, nervous people ready to believe almost any rumor...”
(Dufour p. 241) “When the air was clear and the wind was right,”
the rumbling of the mortars bombarding the forts could be heard like
distant thunder in New Orleans. After four days and nights of mortar
bombardment, the Union ships, under cover of darkness, cut the chains
and began passing through the barricade and headed up river for New
Orleans.
Early
on April 24, word reached the city. The bells of all the churches
began ringing. “Fearfully the people counted the methodical strokes
of the clappers – one, two, three . . . ten, eleven, twelve. It was
the signal of alarm, the signal for all military organizations to
hasten to their armories.” (Dufour, p. 289)
Young
Zoe Campbell heard the news from her friend Cecile Moise, daughter of
the attorney general, that “the Yankees had passed the forts …
the Federals were in the river.” Zoe wrote in her diary: “Our
hearts stood still, fright overpowering us.” Teacher Mary Newman
heard the tolling of the bells in her schoolroom: “I...dropped my
books, snatched my bonnet & fairly flew home,” she wrote her
sister. “I found everything and everybody in commotion.”
Annunciation Square, where the Confederate Guards were encamped, was
a scene of confusion... “some were packing up clothes, others
tearing down tents, and still others hurrying to and fro, all eager
for orders to start for the Jackson Rail Road.” (Dufour, p. 289)
Was B. F. Franklin one of those men?
On
the levee cotton bales were set on fire. Huge supplies of sugar,
molasses, corn, and rice were also thrown on the fires. The True
Delta reported: “Someone invited the women and children who
thronged the levee to help themselves, which they did with a will.
Men joined in the scramble, but they soon became disgusted with a
retail operation and began to roll off sugar and molasses by the
hogshead and barrel...”
Carts
and wagons of military stores crowded the street to the Jackson
Railroad station, where “every available car, freight and
passenger, was on the tracks. Soldiers swarmed all over the cars -
inside, on the vestibules, on top of them...Every moment the milling
crowd grew as hacks dashed up and deposited terror-stricken women,
children, and servants eager to flee the city.” (Dufour, p.
290-291)
George
Washington Cable, clerk in a store whose owners had fled the city,
closed up shop and joined the crowd on the Levee. He later wrote that
he asked a man “Are the Yankee ships in sight?” The man pointed
across the crescent bend of the Mississippi and Cable could see the
masts of Farragut's vessels, engaged in silencing the Confederate
batteries at Chalmette.
If
B. F. Tisdale was one of the men at the Chalmette battery he would
have been helping to fire one of the five big cannons. They fired
until the ammunition ran out and then made their way through the
surrounding swamps back to New Orleans to board the trains to Camp
Moore. Cable watched the Federal ships approach. “Ah me! I see them now
as they come slowly round Slaughterhouse Point into full view,
silent, grim, and terrible; black with men, heavy with deadly
portent; the long-banished Stars and Stripes flying against the
frowning sky...” The occupation of New Orleans had begun.
Most
histories of the Civil War spend few sentences on the bombardment of
the forts and the breaking of the barricade. Joe Gray Taylor in
Louisiana: A History writes
one paragraph. John Winter in The Civil War in Louisiana
writes twelve pages. Twelve of the sixteen chapters of Chester G.
Heart's The Capture of New Orleans
describe the events in meticulous detail. The bombardment and passing
of the forts take up more than half of Charles L. Dufour 's 354 page
The Night the War was Lost.
His book was invaluable in getting an idea of what life must have
been like for the Tisdale family in New Orleans.
