André Cailloux

Accounts of his heroism were widely reported in the press, and became a rallying cry for the recruitment of African Americans into the Union Army.

His petition at age 21 for manumission was supported by his master and was granted by an all-white police jury in the city of New Orleans.

There was an established community of free people of color in New Orleans, who were descended from both European and African Creoles (born in North America).

This group became established during the French colonial years and enjoyed some rights as a third class between the white colonists and the majority of enslaved Africans.

for several years, after she had already borne Félicie, she was held by and served as the common-law wife of her master Valentin Encalada, a white planter.

[3] At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Cailloux was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Native Guard, a state militia organized to defend the city of New Orleans.

Through articles in local New Orleans' newspapers, approximately 1,500 free men of color volunteered for the regiment and petitioned the governor for inclusion in Louisiana's regular militia, which was approved.

Unlike the Confederate unit, this regiment had a mixture of free-men and former slaves and was formed as the direct result of General Butler's requests for reinforcements for The Army of the Gulf falling on deaf ears.

Cailloux gradually earned the respect of Colonel Spencer Stafford, the white officer who commanded the regiment.

[citation needed] The 1st Regiment of the Native Guard was assigned primarily to fatigue duty (chopping wood, digging trenches) until May 1863, when General Banks moved most of his army (35,000 men) into a position to surround the Confederate fortifications at Port Hudson, Louisiana.

Port Hudson was a strategically located fort on a bend in the Mississippi River just 20 miles (32 km) north of Baton Rouge.

As part of the attack the first day, Cailloux was ordered to lead his company of 100 men in an almost suicidal assault against a high redoubt manned by two regiments of Confederate troops with heavy artillery support.

Despite his company suffering heavy casualties, Cailloux, shouting encouragement to his men in French and English, led the charge of his entire regiment, a Minié ball tore through his arm, leaving it hanging useless at his side.

Severely wounded, Cailloux continued to lead the charge until a Confederate artillery shell struck him, nearly tearing him in two and killing him.

[5]Confederate General Gardner later asked for a truce along the northern front of the Port Hudson works so that the bodies of the slain members of the Native Guard could be recovered.

As a result of this, Cailloux's decomposing body lay on the ground for 47 days until Port Hudson finally surrendered to Banks on July 9, 1863.

Claude Paschal Maistre to officiate, despite an interdict against the priest from Bishop Jean-Marie Odin, who supported the Confederate cause.

After Cailloux's death, his widow, Félicie, struggled to receive the financial benefits promised to veterans by the United States government.

[citation needed] Cailloux's story was made into an eponymous short film in 2020, directed by Dane Moreton.