2024-01 Raynors Americana Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/20/2024
Letter signed "Jno. L Lewis" 2pps, datelined Headquarters 1st Div. La. VI, New Orleans, Dec 23, 1861, to Colonel Numa Augustin. In part, "In answer to your communication this date, I have to state that Orders No 47 .. from the Governor ... After the orders were issued, several officers of the French Legion called upon me late at night to learn if the French Legion were included .... it was my individual opinion that ... the orders putting the troops under ... the army of the Confederacy States could not apply to organizations of foreign residents; that they were subject to the militias ..." Ultimately, the foreign troops John Lawson Lewis (1800-1886) was the 17th mayor of New Orleans (1854-1856), had previously served in the Louisiana State Senate and as sheriff of Orleans Parish. During the American Civil War, in the sixth decade of his life, Lewis served in the Confederate Louisiana Militia as a general. The new militia regiment was formed during May 1861, consisting mostly of French Creoles of color. While some members of the new regiment came from wealthy prominent Creole families, a majority of the men were clerks, artisans, and skilled laborers.[4] Louisiana and New Orleans had an estimated 25,000 Creole of color residents. On May 29, 1861, Governor Moore appointed three white officers as commanders of the regiment, and company commanders were appointed from among the Creoles of the regiment. The militia unit was the first of any in North America to have officers of color, preceding the United States Colored Troops. This regiment was called the Louisiana Native Guard. Ten percent of its members would join the Union Army's 1st Louisiana Native Guard. The Louisiana State Legislature passed a law in January 1862 that reorganized the militia into only "...free white males capable of bearing arms… "
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