New Orleans after the Civil War: Race, Politics, and a New Birth of Freedom

Biographical Sketches of Key Figures

Algernon Sydney Badger (1839–1905). A shop clerk in Boston when the Civil War began, Badger was among the first volunteers from his state to enlist in the Union cause. He accompanied the invasion force of General Benjamin Butler to New Orleans in 1862, and later that year he accepted a captain’s commission in the First Louisiana Cavalry (U.S.). Badger saw extensive action during the war and rose to the brevetted rank of lieutenant colonel. He settled in New Orleans after the war, and in 1867 he became a precinct captain in the Metropolitan Police . By 1870 Badger had taken command of the Metropolitans as general superintendent . In this capacity he led his men against the White League during the 1874 Battle of Liberty Place, where he received life-threatening wounds that required the amputation of his leg. Despite the collapse of Republican rule in Louisiana , Badger remained active in the party and served frequently as state chairman . He also held numerous federal patronage posts, including postmaster and collector of customs in New Orleans. Badger also served as the commander of the Department of the Gulf encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic. Despite being perhaps the most prominent Republican in Louisiana by the end of the nineteenth century, Badger enjoyed broad respect among the conservative business elite of New Orleans. Ezekiel John Ellis (1840–1889). Witness to the secession crisis of 1860–61 while finishing his legal studies at the University of Louisiana in New Orleans, Ellis went on to volunteer for service in the Sixteenth Louisiana, a regiment raised in his home town of Tangipahoa. He rose to the rank of captain and became a prisoner of war at Missionary Ridge outside of Chattanooga in November 1863. He spent the remainder of the war at the Johnson’s Island prison near Sandusky , Ohio. Upon returning home, Ellis, though a prewar Whig, became actively involved with the Democratic party, and in 1867 he served as “chief of circle ” of his local chapter of the Knights of the White Camellia. With the Radical ascendancy, Ellis moved to New Orleans and formed a law partnership with his Biographical Sketches of Key Figures 306 B i o g r a p h i c a l S k e t c h e s o f K e y F i g u r e s older brother Thomas Cargill Warner Ellis. A close confidant of leading Democratic figures, Ellis was an architect of the Fusionism campaign of 1872 and was privy to the 1874 White League plan to overthrow the Republican government of William Pitt Kellogg. In the fall 1874 midterm elections, he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana’s Second District. From this vantage point, Ellis played a key role as one of the negotiators in the Compromise of 1877. Despite his devotion to the cause, Ellis fell afoul of the Bourbon wing of the Democratic party after Redemption and twice tried unsuccessfully to nominate Frederick Nash Ogden as a Reformer gubernatorial candidate. He served five terms in the U.S. House and died in Washington, DC, in 1889. Peter Joseph (1843–1905). Although he was born into slavery (by his own admission), Joseph lived the life of a free person of color until he was drafted into the U.S. Army in May of 1865. He forged friendships with key Republicans during his service and became a sergeant in the Metropolitan Police afterward, in 1868. A trusted subordinate of Algernon Sydney Badger, Joseph played a key role in maintaining Henry Clay Warmoth’s rule during the 1870–71 putsch attempt mounted by the governor’s Custom House rivals. For his loyalty, Joseph received a promotion to captain. As a fervent Republican activist, he gained notoriety by suing the popular Academy of Music theater for racial discrimination in 1874. Later that year, Joseph took part in the Battle of Liberty Place. After 1877 he found employment under Badger as a captain of night inspectors in the U.S. Custom House. A regular delegate to the state Republican convention, Joseph remained in politics until he moved from the city in 1892. He died in Denver, Colorado, in 1905. Frederick Nash Ogden (1837–1886). Raised in New Orleans by his politically powerful uncle, Fred Ogden was working in the mercantile trades by the time he was fifteen years old. He volunteered for the war on the day after the firing on Fort Sumter...