Organized in April 1861, the Louisiana Native Guards, an African American regiment, served in both the Confederate and Union armies. After the fall of Fort Sumter, the free black community of New Orleans answered Jefferson Davis' call to arms and formed an all-black militia unit. The. regiment numbered 35 officers and 870 enlisted men; more than 80 percent were mulattoes, individuals haying both white and black ancestry.

Ignoring the unit's requests to fight, Southern military leaders relegated the regiment to parades and other public displays. When New Orleans fell in April 1862, Confederate authorities quickly disbanded the unit before Northern soldiers occupied the port. Union General Benjamin F. Butler took control of the city in May. Attempting to gain political favor with Republican officials', Butler mustered the African Americans, including many runaway slaves, into the Union army in September 1862, several months before the Emancipation Proclamation would officially...