First Louisiana Guards, US Colored Troops Officers - Civil War Drawing

Description

USA SALES ONLY.  SORRY.
The upper part of Page 133 from Harper's Weekly, dated February 28, 1863.
Depicts the Officers of Company C of the First Louisiana Native Guards.
These are:
Capt. Charles
Sentmanat
, Co. D.;
1st Lieut. L. D.
Larrieu
, Co. A.;
2d Lieut. J. L.
Montieu
, Co. A.;
Capt. E.
Davis
, Co. A.; and
2d Lieut. V.
Lavigne
, Co. D.
As seen in the close up, there is normal aging and a spot below the word Harper's
but the printing is legible and the drawing of the officers very well done.
Historically, the
1st Louisiana Native Guards
were a Louisiana State Militia regiment when 1500 free men of color responded to the governor's call for troops upon Louisiana's secession from the United States
at the beginning of the Civil War, to thereby serve on the side of the Confederacy. I
t was the
first
North American regiment to commission African-American officers.
The regiment was disbanded by a fearful State Legislature in early 1862 as Union troops advanced but almost
immediately reinstated by Governor Thomas Moore, only to be disbanded again as Union forces under General Butler captured New Orleans later in 1862. At that time, more than 100 of its men, including the officers shown in this drawing, c
hose to reform as the
1st Louisiana Native Guards, US Colored Troops
,
later to become the
73rd Regiment Infantry, U.S. Colored Troops
.
They saw battle and sustained heavy casualties at the Siege of Port Hudson in 1863, supporting General Grant's attacks on Vicksburg to open the Mississippi River to safe Union control and shipping.