1874 — Sep 14, political/racial battle, White League vs. Republican Police, New Orleans, LA–27-35
Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 3-27-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/
— 38 Civilwar.bluegrass.net. “Race Riots ‘Battle of Liberty Place’ September 14, 1874.”
— 35 Nystrom, Justin A. “The Battle of Liberty Place.” Encyclopedia of Louisiana. 4-8-2010.
–13 Metropolitans
–16 White Leaguers
— 6 Bystanders
— 32 Campanella, Richard. Time and Place in New Orleans: Past Geographies… 2002, p. 165.
— 32 Loewen, J. W. Lies Across America: What American Historic Sites Get Wrong. 1999, 198.
–11 Metropolitans and their allied
–21 White Leaguers, including two bystanders
— 27 African American Registry. “The Battle of Liberty Place Occurs!”[1]
— 27 Hair, W. The Kingfish and His Realm: The Life and Times of Huey P. Long. 1991, p. 9-10.
–11 Republicans
–16 White League Democrats
— 27 Historical Marker Database. “Battle of Liberty Place Monument September 14th 1874.”
–11 Members of Metropolitan Police
–16 Crescent City White League
— 27 Hofstadter and Wallace (Eds.). American Violence: A Documentary History. 1970, p.102.
–11 Longstreet-Kellog forces
–16 White League members
— 26 Childs. History of the United States. 1886, p. 232.
—>20 Hofstadter and Wallace (Eds.). American Violence: A Documentary History. 1970, p. 16.
— 16 U. S. Central Publishing Co. Important Events of the Century: 1776-1876, p. 195.
— 8 Metropolitan Police
— 8 White Leaguers
Narrative Information
African American Registry: “Mon, 1874-09-14. On this date in 1874, White Democrats seized the Louisiana statehouse in a takeover. This White resistance and occupation has been called the Battle of Liberty Place. Taking place in New Orleans, 3500 confederacy members took over the city hall, statehouse, and an arsenal. President Grant ordered the insurgents to disperse and sent in federal troops. Twenty-seven persons (sixteen whites and eleven Blacks) were killed. A great deal damage was done and the Whites were defeated. The uprising was so severe that the federal army remained in Louisiana for a number of years.” (African American Registry. “The Battle of Liberty Place Occurs!”)
Campanella: “Reconstruction-era political enmities boiled over at the foot of Canal Street, in front of the Custom House, on September 14, 1874, when the White League, a Democratic militia vehemently opposed to the Republican presence, engaged carpetbagger governor W. P. Kellogg’s predominantly black Metropolitan Police in a violent fifteen-minute clash precipitated by the White League’s attempt to oust the governor after his seizure of an arms shipment. The defeat of the Metropolitans in the Battle of Liberty Place, which cost thirty-two lives, provided the White League with a momentum that would eventually lead to the withdrawal of all federal troops in 1877…” (Campanella, Richard. Time and Place in New Orleans: Past Geographies in the Present Day. Pelican Publishing Co., Inc. 2002, p. 165.)
Childs: “Louisiana was the scene of a violent struggle between rival claimants of the State government. The trouble began as far back as December, 1871, when two different factions each tried to capture the legislature by unseating members of the opposite party. In January following, Federal troops had been called upon to preserve peace. Again in December, 1872, another controversy arose as to the result of the election for governor and legislators, the Returning Board having split, one part declaring William P. Kellogg governor, and the other John McEnery. The United States District Court, however, enjoined McEnery from acting, on the ground that the returning board which had proclaimed him elected had done so in defiance of its order. Both claimants were inaugurated; and Federal troops were used to break up the McEnery administration, Kellogg being recognized at Washington as the lawful governor.
“Late in the summer of 1874, McEnery again laid claim to the governorship. Party feeling now ran very high, on account of various fatal affrays between the blacks and whites in Louisiana and elsewhere. September 14th, in McEnery’s absence, D. B. Penn, claiming to be lieutenant-governor, organized a militia force and sent it to the Statehouse to drive Kellogg out. It succeeded, a fight in the streets having first occurred, in which the police and other militia offered resistance. Twenty-six persons were killed and about forty wounded in this conflict. Kellogg appealed to the President for aid, under the provisions of the Constitution requiring the Federal authorities to guarantee to each State a republican form of government. General Emory, acting under orders from Washington, compelled McEnery, who had now returned, superseding Penn, to surrender.” (Childs. History of the United States. 1886, p. 232.)
Civilwar.bluegrass.net: “Even though his administration was faced with widespread violence directed against freed blacks and Republican officials in the South during Reconstruction, President Ulysses S. Grant did little to curb white militancy. He preferred to let matters take their course in the Southern states rather than to risk involving the federal government in a race war. A vigilante group organized in Louisiana in the spring and summer of 1874 counted 14,000 members – mostly Confederate veterans – by fall. Calling themselves the White League, they were dedicated to a ‘white man’s government’ and the suppression of ‘the insolent and barbarous African.’
“Emboldened by the federal hands-off policies, 3,500 armed White Leaguers assembled in New Orleans on September 14, 1874, and demanded that carpetbag Republican Gov. William Kellog resign. Opposing the White League were 3,600 policemen and black militia troops under the command of ex-Confederate General James Longstreet. Supported by two Gatling guns and a battery of artillery, Longstreet’s force formed a battle line from Jackson Square to Canal Street, guarding the Customs House, in which the governor and other Republican officials had taken refuge. The White Leaguers charged the line, captured Longstreet, and pushed his men to the river, where they either surrendered or fled. The attackers occupied the city hall, statehouse, and arsenal. Total casualties in the one-hour fight that has become known as the Battle of Liberty Place were 38 killed and 79 wounded.
“The white supremacists deposed Kellog, installed John McEnery as governor, and ran the state government for three days. By the end of that time, Grant, alarmed at the armed insurrection, had ordered federal troops to New Orleans. Upon the arrival of the U.S. Army, the White Leaguers withdrew, Kellog was reinstated as governor, and Longstreet was released. It was obvious that without the presence of the federal military, Louisiana’s carpetbag government could not be sustained.
“Fascinating Fact: Longstreet was vilified for leading black troops against his former soldiers. “It was with the greatest difficulty”, said one White League officer, “that I prevented the men from firing particularly at Longstreet”.” (Civilwar.bluegrass.net. “Race Riots ‘Battle of Liberty Place’ September 14, 1874.”)
Hair: “By September of 1874, White League partisans controlled most of the rural parishes and towns. They had been conducting a low-intensity guerrilla war, of the type often proved effective in other parts of the world. The hated alien regime, propped up by outside support, had lost the countryside and was isolated in the capital, New Orleans. There Governor Kellogg, had at his disposal about 4,000 local troops: the mostly white Metropolitan Police, commanded by the former Union general Algernon S. Badger, and the mostly black state militia, under former Confed4rage general James Longstreet, who had turned Republican after the war. By September 14, the White League, which was in effect the military arm of Louisiana’s Democratic party, decided the time had come for armed confrontation in the city.[2]
“The White League troops were commanded by Frederick N. Ogden, formerly a Confederate colonel in Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry. Ogden’s force of 8,400 included whites of all economic strata, their names indicating a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds: Anglo-Protestant, German, Latin Catholic, and Jewish. Most of Ogden’s men were armed with cheap old muzzle-loading rifles imported from Belgium. The Republicans had better arms – Winchester repeating rifles, artillery, and two Gatling guns – but they were outnumbered over two to one. On Canal Street, about 4 p.m. on September 14, the two armies faced each other. Longstreet’s and Badger’s troops lined up in front of the United States Custom House, along the street entrances to the Vieux Carré, and at the leveed riverfront.[3]
“Thousands of spectators in and around nearby buildings watched the ensuing brief battle. The White Leaguers charged, the Metropolitan defensive line caved in, and the militia fled down the Vieux Carré toward Jackson Square. Governor Kellogg and General Longstreet found sanctuary inside the granite Custom House; General Badger, hit four times by rifle fire, was carried to Charity Hospital by ‘my White League friends’, as he good-naturedly called them. He recovered. No federal soldiers were involved in the battle. The only United States Army company stationed in the city gazed upon the fighting from windows in the Custom House, which the White League had no intention of attacking.[4]
“Casualties on both sides were light: eleven dead, sixty wounded for the Republicans; sixteen dead and forty-five wounded for the attacking Democrats….”[5]
Historical Marker Database: “Inscription… in honor of those Americans on both sides who died in the Battle of Liberty Place. Members of the Metropolitan Police:
“John H. H. Camp, John Kennedy, Edward Simon, J.F. Clermont, J.E. Koehler, William Thornton, David Fisher, James McManus, Rudolphe Zipple, Armsted Hill, Michael O’Keefe….
“Crescent City White League…Fell in Action:
“A. Bozonier, Michael Betz, Chas. Brulard, Jas. Crossin, J. Considine, Adrien Feuillan, A. M. Gautier, J. K. Gourdain, John Graval, R. G. Lindsey, F. M. Mohrmann, S. B. Newman Jr. WM. C. Robbins, E. A. Toledano, Wm. A. Wells, J. M. West.” (Historical Marker Database. “Battle of Liberty Place Monument September 14th 1874.”)
Hofstadter and Wallace: “The most extraordinary encounter took place in New Orleans on September 14, 1874. In this affair, which rose above the level of a riot or shoot-out to that of a pitched military battle for control of the state. In this encounter a Gatling gun and some regular artillery were deployed, and the clash of the two armed groups left over 20 dead and over 100 wounded. By 1877, with the defeat of radical reconstruction, the last of the Negro militias was dissolved.” (Hofstadter and Wallace. American Violence: A Documentary History. 1970, p. 16.)
“Hofstadter and Wallace: “….In 1872, after the struggle for political control of the state reached a stalemate, violence began to be turned against the state itself. That year, the Republican candidate, William P. Kellog, was opposed by a coalition of dissident Republicans and Democrats backing John McEnery. The election was so muddled by fraud and coercion that it was impossible to determine who had won, and both sides claimed a victory. In January, 1873, as armed bands of whites and blacks paraded the streets, both candidates took oaths of office and set up rival legislatures. In March McEnery tried to assemble a militia force, but the New Orleans police, loyal to Kellog, dispersed the McEnery legislature. Kellog’s faction then became the de facto government.
“The whites of the state organized White Leagues, which were para-military organizations, dedicated to the recapture of power for whites. Their numbers, which eventually reached over 25,000, including many reputable citizens and large property holders of the state. In September 1874 a shipment of rifles to the White League was confiscated by Governor Kellog’s order. The leaders of the League called a mass meeting to protest this infringement of their right to bear arms. The White League military companies demanded that Kellog resign. He refused, ordered his Adjutant General, Lames A. Longstreet of Confederate Army fame, to rally the militia and join with General A. S. Badger’s metropolitan police to defend his government, and then took refuge in the customs house.
“The Canal Street meeting, numbering perhaps 5,000 or 6,000, then proclaimed McEnery Governor and D. B. Penn Lieutenant Governor. In McEnery’s absence, Penn took command of the insurgent forces. He issued a proclamation calling on all Louisianans to get arms and support him in ‘driving the usurpers from power.’ At two p.m. on September 14 the White Leaguers captured the City Hall and the telegraph office. They next moved against the police and militia. In a short but bloody gun battle they routed the Kellog forces and effected a coup d’etat. The White League lost 16 dead and 45 wounded, and the Longstreet-Kellog forces lost 11 dead and 60 wounded.
“Kellog had, in the meantime, telegraphed President Grant who ordered federal troops to put down the insurrection. This was done peacefully, since McEnery counseled against resisting federal force. Kellog resumed his functions on the 19th. But though the White League was temporarily defeated, the events of 1874 marked the beginning of the end of Reconstruction government. In 1876 the federal government refused to use force to support the Louisiana radical Republicans, the government collapsed and Reconstruction was at an end.”[6] (Hofstadter and Wallace (Eds.). “New Orleans Coup d’Etat 2874.” American Violence: A Documentary History. 1970, p.102.)
Loewen: “On the morning of September 14, 1874, thousands of white Democrats gathered at the statue of Henry Clay then located in the Canal Street median at St. Charles Street. After incendiary speeches, at four in the afternoon about 8,400 whites attacked 3,000 black members of the state militia, 500 mostly white members of the metropolitan police, and 100 other local police officers, all under the command of Gen. James Longstreet. Longstreet had been a Confederate general; indeed, he was Lee’s senior corps commander at Gettysburg. After the war he came to believe, in accord with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, that blacks should have full rights as citizens including voting rights.
“In fifteen minutes the White Leaguers routed Longstreet’s forces and captured him. Eleven metropolitans and their allies were killed and 60 wounded. Twenty-one White Leaguers were killed including two bystanders, and nineteen were wounded. White League officials then took charge of all state offices in New Orleans and appealed to Pres. Grant for recognition.
“Grant refused to recognize the new group, and a few days later federal troops restored the Republican governor to office….” (Loewen, J. W. Lies Across America: What American Historic Sites Get Wrong. 1999, 198.)
Loyola University of New Orleans: “On September 14, 1874, seizing an opportunity provided when President Grant pulled most Federal troops out of Louisiana due to the yellow fever epidemic, the White League assembled in New Orleans. They demanded that Governor William Kellogg resign and be replaced with John McEnery, his unsuccessful Democratic opponent in the dubious 1872 gubernatorial election.
“The White League called a public meeting at the Henry Clay statue (then on Canal Street) and advanced through the French Quarter, bound for the Custom House, where Kellogg was headquartered at the time. The White League successfully routed the Metropolitan police with their superior numbers and there were at least 100 casualties. When the smoke cleared the next day, the White League controlled the police station and the arsenal. They installed Davidson Penn as Governor until McEnery, who was returning from Vicksburg, could arrive. Federal troops were already en route to New Orleans; President Grant had dispatched them as soon as he became aware of the White League’s machinations in the city. U.S. General Emory met with Penn and McEnery and informed them that Kellogg would be restored by force if necessary, and with that the White League quietly and peacefully surrendered the city to the Federal troops.
“Although the White League had effectively overthrown Louisiana’s state government for three days, no White League commander or member faced charges for the events of September 14th. In a long-winded published address just two weeks after the incident, Governor Kellogg attempted to prove his administration’s solvency and appealed for ‘…a more just judgement and a more generous sympathy than have yet been given to the Republican state government of Louisiana.’ Nonetheless, white rule and black disenfranchisement would again become the norm just three years later with the Compromise of 1877, which formally ended Reconstruction and stifled integration efforts for many decades to come.” (Loyola University of New Orleans. “The White League…The Battle of Liberty Place.” Kate Chopin website.)
Nystrom: “A pitched battle took place in the streets of New Orleans on September 14, 1874. In it, the Democratic-Conservative White League attacked the Republican Metropolitan Police for control of the city and to put an end to Reconstruction in Louisiana. Although the White League inflicted a stunning defeat on the Metropolitans and forcibly deposed Governor William Pitt Kellogg, its victory proved short-lived. President Ulysses S. Grant ordered the army to reinstate Kellogg three days later. Quickly dubbed ‘The Battle of Liberty Place’ by the White League and its supporters, the clash not only marked a crucial turning point in the balance of power during Reconstruction in Louisiana, it served as a defining moment for a generation of the New Orleans’s elite young white men….
“Intense fighting quickly erupted between the League and Metropolitans, while bystanders numbering in the thousands looked on. Within fifteen minutes, the battle had turned into a rout, with Metropolitans fleeing frantically toward the sanctuary of the Custom House or to their homes. The battle differed considerably from other episodes of Reconstruction-era violence in that it was an action instead of a riot or massacre. Among the dead were sixteen White Leaguers, thirteen Metropolitans, and six bystanders. Scores were injured, some seriously, including Badger, who was shot four times trying to rally his men….” (Nystrom, Justin A. “The Battle of Liberty Place.” Encyclopedia of Louisiana. 4-8-2010.)
- S. Central Publishing Co.: “Sept. 14. – The Kellogg riot in New Orleans – eight Metropolitan police and eight White Leaguers killed; great numbers wounded. The Kellogg government temporarily overthrown.” (U. S. Central Publishing Co. Important Events of the Century: 1776-1876, p. 195,)
Sources
African American Registry. “The Battle of Liberty Place Occurs!” Accessed 8-6-2012 at: http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/battle-liberty-place-occurs
Campanella, Richard. Time and Place in New Orleans: Past Geographies in the Present Day. Pelican Publishing Co., Inc. 2002. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Ul2mUwL3TCUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY: Baker & Taylor, 1886. Google digitized. Accessed 9-4-2017: http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Civilwar.bluegrass.net. “Race Riots ‘Battle of Liberty Place’ September 14, 1874.” Accessed 8-6-2012 at: http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/AftermathAndReconstruction/raceriots.html
Hair, William Ivy. The Kingfish and His Realm: The Life and Times of Huey P. Long. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University, 1991.
Historical Marker Database. “Battle of Liberty Place Monument September 14th 1874.” Accessed 8-6-2012 at: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=34742
Hofstadter, Richard and Michael Wallace (Eds.). American Violence: A Documentary History. Vintage Books, 1970.
Loewen, James W. Lies Across America: What American Historic Sites Get Wrong. NY: Touchstone, 1999. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=vBZiU_tmRmgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Loyola University of New Orleans. “The White League.” Kate Chopin website. Accessed 8-6-2012 at: http://www.loyno.edu/~kchopin/new/culture/creoles.html
Nystrom, Justin A. “The Battle of Liberty Place.” Encyclopedia of Louisiana. 4-8-2010. Accessed 8-6-2012 at: http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=757
United States Central Publishing Co. Important Events of the Century: 1776-1876. NY: U.S. Central Pub. Co., 1876. Google preview accessed 1-22-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=OGZt1HGsgmEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
[1] Cites: The Encyclopedia Britannica (24th Ed.), 1996.
[2] Cites: George C. Rabble, But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction (Athens, Ga., 1984), 132-38; H. Oscar Lestage, Jr, “The White League in Louisiana and Its Participation in Reconstruction Riots,’ Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XVIII (July, 1935), 632-94.
[3] Cites: Frank L. Richardson, ‘My Recollections of the Battle of the Fourteenth of September, 1874, in New Orleans, La..,’ Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XVIII (July, 1935), 498-501; Ella Lonn, Reconstruction in Louisiana: After 1868 (NY, 1918), 271-73; Taylor, Louisiana Reconstructed, 293-94; New York Times, September 15-17, 1874.
[4] Cites: House Reports, 43d Cong., 2d Sess., No. 261, Pt. 3, pp. 394-401; New Orleans Picayune, September 15-17, 1874; Tunnell, Crucible of Reconstruction, 212-13; New York Times, September 15, 1874.
[5] Cites: “Official Report of Gen. Fred N. Ogden, Provisional General of the Louisiana State Militia,’ in New Orleans. Picayune, October 2, 1874, and in Alcee Fortier, ed. Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Counties [sic], Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (2 vols.; Chicago, 1909), Il., 643-46; Editorial in New Orleans Daily States, May 15, 1893.
[6] Cites as sources: Stuart Landry, The Battle of Liberty Place (1955); Otis Singletary, Negro Militia and Reconstruction (1957); Ella Lonn: Reconstruction in Louisiana after 1868 (1918); C. Vann Woodward, Reunion and Reaction: The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction (1951); Frederick T. Wilson, Federal Aid in Domestic Disturbances, 1787-1922, Senate Document No. 263, 67th Congress, 2nd Session; and Alcee Fortier. A History of Louisiana (1904).