Many locals say “New Basin Canal,” but the Coast Guard just calls it the “New Canal.”
The New Canal in 1864
Photograph of the turning basin for the “New Canal,” located at S. Rampart Street and Howard Avenue. Construction of the canal began in 1831. In spite of the original intent of city planners, there never was a canal built on Canal Street. Instead, the Creole community living in the Vieux Carre constructed a canal that followed the “Old Portage.” This was the foot path that led from the end of Bayou St. John to the city. This was more logical than digging a canal from the river to the lake. The Spanish Colonial government built what became known as the Carondelet Canal in 1795.
The Anglo-Irish Americans who lived on the uptown side of Canal Street, however, wanted their own access to Lake Pontchartrain. So, they began a project to dig a canal from S. Rampart Street out to what is now West End. By 1838, the canal was able to support small boats. Dredging of the canal continued into the mid-1840s, when it became commercially useful.
New/Old
The New Canal (as opposed to the “old” Carondelet Canal) was constructed primarily by Irish immigrants. While the claims that 10,000 workers died of yellow fever while building the canal are grossly exaggerated, the disease as well as accidents and such did cost the lives of many men.
This photo shows the turning basin in 1864. It’s part of the Marshall Dunham collection. Dunham worked for McPherson & Oliver, who were located at No. 132 Canal Street. New Orleans returned to regular commercial operations after the Union occupied the city in 1862. The Union navy lifted the naval blockade. By 1864, the port was an important staging base for the Union Army to move into the Western theater of operations in the Civil War. The photo shows the triangular shape of the turning basin.
With the completion of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (Industrial Canal) in the 1920s, the importance of the New Canal diminished. It was filled in after World War II, and is now the location of the Pontchartrain Expressway. Only a few blocks of the canal’s entrance at Lake Pontchartrain remain.
Podcast 47 is the first of a four-part series on early New Orleans street railways. We’re talking about streetcars that pre-date our iconic arch roof streetcars from 1923, and the red streetcars from 2004. Beginning with the origins of public transit with omnibuses to steam railroad lines, to mule-drawn streetcars, we present getting around before electrification.
The New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad (NO&CRR) launched the first street rail line, from Baronne Street to Carrollton in 1835. This was a steam-powered line. This 1830s illustration of the Carrollton Hotel shows the steam locomotive for the Carrollton line on the left.
As Uptown expanded, residents complained about the smoke and noise of the train. NO&CRR switched from steam railroad operations to mule-drawn streetcars in the 1840s. They used Stephenson Co. “bobtail” streetcars pulled by mules.
Downtown Bobtails
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The New Orleans City Railrod Company (NOCRR) inaugurated the Canal and Esplanade lines in 1861. While trying other streetcar models, they quickly settled on the Stephenson bobtails as well.
Facilities
After switching from steam power to mule power, NO&CRR built a barn at St. Charles and Napoleon Avenues. This is the layout of that corner, via the Robinson Atlas of 1883.
Esplanade streetcar approaching the Esplanade barn, 1864
Esplanade Station, 1883
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New Orleans became a base for regiments like the 42nd Massachusetts Infantry.
42nd Massachusetts Infantry Regiment
Illustration of the New Orleans headquarters of the 42nd Massachusetts Infantry, 1863. The regiment set up shop in Gentilly. They staged here for actions outside of New Orleans, most notably Port Hudson and Bayou Teche.
Description from The Historic New Orleans Collection:
View of a wood and log military building during the Civil War. In front of it are Union soldiers in military uniforms and horses. The building is located in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. It was headquarters of the 42nd Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteers during the occupation of New Orleans.
So, at this time, Gentilly was well outside the city proper.
Bayou Gentilly
The 42nd Massachusetts operated out of the swampy mess that was the merge of bayous in what is now Mid-City New Orleans. Bayou Metairie fizzled out when it merged with Bayou St. John. The waterway continued east, but as Bayou Gentilly. The regiment chose high ground we refer to as the Gentilly Ridge. along the water.
The Union forces recognized the importance of Bayou St. John. The combination of the bayou and the Carondelet Canal provided a navigable waterway linking Faubourg Treme and the French Quarter to Lake Pontchartrain. That waterway concerned the US Army greatly during the War of 1812. While the overall situation was different in the 1860s, the Union forces did due diligence. In the first half of 1863, the 42nd Massachusetts performed picket duties along Bayou St. John, up to the lake.
Successes of the 42nd
The 42nd provided engineering and support services to Union forces moving north and west from New Orleans. Their success in this regard demonstrates the utter failure of the CSA Army and Navy in the Gulf. New Orleans provided the Union with a well-supplied staging area. They engaged the CSA from both directions in the West.
Additionally, the 42nd contributed to the formation of the 1st Louisiana Engineers, a USCT unit.
The White League engaged in terrorism by lighting Lee.
Lighting Lee Circle
Photos of Lee Circle at night. The first, set back from the monument, is a John Tibule Mendes shot taken in 1916. The second is from New Orleans Public Service, Incorporated, from 1928. Caption for the 1916 photo (via THNOC):
Poorly-exposed night view of the Lee Monument at Lee Circle in the Central Business District looking along Saint Charles Avenue towards Uptown. Streetcar tracks are visible in the foreground. The Lee Monument honors Confederate General Robert E. Lee and was dedicated on February 22, 1884. John Roy of New Orleans designed the mound and column while Alexander Doyle designed the bronze likeness of Lee that stands atop the column.
Accordingly, New Orleans Railway & Light Company provided the electric power for lighting Lee in 1916.
The second photo shows the monument from a closer perspective.
Why Lee?
The purpose erecting a statue to the traitor Lee was simple: assertion of white supremacy in New Orleans. So, Confederate sympathizers terrorized the population of New Orleans from the start of the Union occupation in 1862. Unionists, mostly Irish and Germans, went to the river levees to greet the Union squadron under the command of Flag-Officer Farragut. Despite their defeat, white men shot and killed them, forcing others to retreat from the levee. Confederates held the Irish and Germans responsible for the loss of the city. During the attack, the Irish and German troops at Fort Jackson mutinied, sealing the city’s fate. Local lost-causers formed the White League, formalizing their opposition to a Union-controlled state government. Therefore, the White League was, for all intents and purposes, a terrorist organization.
So, fast forward to twenty years after the conflict. The White League pressed their control of the city. hey used Carnival organizations and social clubs to bolster the terrorist violence of their militia. The city’s demographics changed radically in the 1880s, with the influx of Sicilians into New Orleans. The Sicilians brought their own criminal element with them. The Mafia challenged the White League’s control. This required a response from the established criminals.
The monument
To emphasize the economic control the White League held, they commissioned a column of “white Georgia marble” to be placed at the center of Tivoli Circle. They topped that column with a statue of the traitor Lee. Sculptor Alexander Doyle crafted that statue. it was dedicated on Washington’s Birthday in 1884. While the outward forms of support for the monument stated it was built to recognize the sacrifices of the Confederacy, its underlying purpose was asserting power.
The lights
The White League experimented with illuminating the monument almost immediately. The first attempts involved burning magnesium in the urns around the column. This lit up Lee Circle for miles. Of course, the magnesium burned out and had to be replaced. By the 1910s, urban electrification extended into residential areas of the city. First came the streetcars, in the 1890s, Power lines extended from the streetcar routes. With Lee, it was a matter of someone willing to pay the light bill.
Why bother with lighting? The monument stood at the Western end of the Central Business District. Tourists rarely ventured past Poydras Street. In the early part of the 20th century, most buildings in New Orleans were three or four stories. The monument towered over the neighborhood. Light it up at night, and Lee was visible for miles. That pleased the White League. It communicated to everyone their ownership and control of the city. That made the light bill worth it.
The Brothers of the Sacred Heart moved into Faubourg Marigny during the Civil War, Bay to City.
Bay to City
At the beginning of the Civil War, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart (BOSH) stood at a crossroads. The Institute operated St. Stanislaus College in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, since 1854. With secession of Louisiana and Mississippi, the Union Navy blockaded the Western Gulf Coast, anticipating an invasion of New Orleans. The Brothers closed St. Stanislaus to boarders.
To fully appreciate this move, consider a trip from the city to the bay. We’re not talking about an hour’s drive. In 1861, you’d load up a coach or wagon with your boy(s) and their luggage, and head about 100 miles east. That was a eight hour ride. With Farragut’s ships and gunboats, along with Butler’s 30,000 troops on Ship Island, safety was a serious concern. While families understood the concerns, they didn’t want to just give up on a BOSH education for their boys.
To the City
Brother Athanasius Faugier, S.C.
So, the BOSH contacted the Archbishop of New Orleans, Jean-Marie Odin, about setting up a presence in the city. Odin agreed, and connected Brother Athanasius Faugier, S.C, of St. Stanislaus, with Father Anthony Durier, pastor of Annunciation Parish in Faubourg Marigny. Fr. Durier helped the Brothers set up shop in the Marigny. This made a lot of sense. Brothers from France worked with a French archbishop to open a school in a very-French neighborhood. Fr. Durier loaned a house to the BOSH. They renovated that house to accommodate twenty-five boarders. They then rented a house on Union Street (now Touro Street) and opened the school. The school was about six blocks away from the boarding house. The 1883 Robinson Atlas segment above shows Annunciation Church in block 492.
Fr. Anthony Durier
This arrangement continued through the end of the rebellion. The BOSH packed up and returned to the Bay. It wasn’t long, though, that Archbishop Odin invited the institute to establish a permanent presence in New Orleans. The BOSH purchased the house at Chartres and Barracks Streets in 1869, and St. Aloysius opens.
Thanks to the faculty members of Brother Martin High School, who assembled much of this information for their Day of Experience, “Exploring the Origins of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans.”
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