Mutiny at Fort Jackson: The Untold Story of the Fall of New Orleans

5. The Many Fates of the Fort Jackson Garrison

5 the many fates of the fort jackson garrison Nothing is known about Thomas Graham’s life before he enlisted in Company B of the 1st Louisiana Heavy Artillery on February 28, 1861. He was then 22 years old, and he volunteered on the first day the regiment started to recruit. Graham’s Confederate military record was uneventful until the mutiny. After that night, Graham becomes a larger figure in the historical record, and his life hints at the motivations of the mutineers as well as the perils they faced after their rebellion. At some point in the spring or summer after the mutiny, Thomas Graham enlistedinthe8thVermontVolunteers.TheVermontershadstartedrecruiting soon after they arrived in New Orleans, hoping that Unionists would replace some of the losses they had suffered from disease. In May, the 8th Vermont enlisted six Frenchmen, five men from the German states, one Swiss, and Charles Marrion, a carpenter born in South Carolina. Recruiting picked up again in July, when the regiment was stationed in Algiers, across the river from New Orleans. One of the regiment’s officers, Stephen Spald- 130 The Many Fates of the Fort Jackson Garrison ing, reported that new recruits were easily found. Writing that a man in his regiment had drowned, Spalding cynically noted, ‘‘I had a man in his place enlisted and drilling just as he was sinking the 3rd time.’’∞ The 8th Vermont spent much of the summer in Algiers, but it also established picket lines west of the city along the New Orleans, Opelousas, and Great Western railroad. Patrolling the western approaches to New Orleans was both tedious and dangerous. One soldier jokingly referred to the regiment’s post at Bayou des Allemands as ‘‘musketoe valley.’’ Confederates also buzzed around the outpost. In July a Confederate recruiter was captured and brought in by local Unionists who probably wanted to avoid being drafted.≤ For Graham and others in his regiment, the summer passed with long periods of boredom. Disaster struck on September 4, 1862. A surprise attack on the 8th Vermont ’s outpost at Bayou des Allemands captured 141 Union soldiers, including Thomas Graham. Worse was to follow. The Confederates recognized seven of their prisoners as former Confederate soldiers. The seven men, Bernard Hurst, Deidrich Bahne, John and Michael Leichleiver, Michael Masman, Frank Paul, and Gustave C. Becher, were quickly separated from the other Union prisoners. They were then ‘‘taken about five rods [about twenty-seven yards] from the rail-road, a single shallow pit was dug, they were placed on the brink, and without respite were shot down; their bodies tumbled into the ditch, and a few shovelfuls of earth were thrown over them.’’ Thomas Graham—who remained unrecognized—must have been terrified. Nor was he alone. Two other veterans of Fort Jackson were captured that day, William H. Brown and Dennis Kean. Both Brown and Kean had enlisted on June 1. William Brown had been born in Bangor, Maine, and, like Graham, had been 22 years old in 1861. Dennis Kean, an Irish-born laborer, was the eldest of the men at age 29.≥ All three men headed off to a Confederate prison camp near Vicksburg, scared about what would happen to them if their identity was discovered. Thomas Graham’s luck lasted only until October 30, 1862. Recognized as a former member of the 1st Louisiana Heavy Artillery, Graham was tried at a court-martial in Jackson, Mississippi, on December 20, 1862. His accusers said that he ‘‘did join in a mutiny and abandon his post of duty in the presence of the enemy.’’ He was also charged with desertion and joining the Federal army. He was found guilty and sentenced ‘‘to be shot to death The Many Fates of the Fort Jackson Garrison 131 with musketry.’’ Dennis Kean and William Brown were also found guilty that day.∂ The three men were shot to death on March 6, 1863. Confederates officers had each of the men shot in front of a different Confederate division, the better to impress upon wavering volunteers and conscripts the fate that awaited them if they mutinied or deserted. Confederate private J. A. Wilson described one of the executions, probably Graham’s or Brown’s, since he described the man as ‘‘quite a good looking young man.’’ Wilson wrote that ‘‘he was set on his coffin, his hands tied behind, in front of twelve men with loaded Muskets. [W...