Booknotes: A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy

New Arrival:
• A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy: The Fall of New Orleans, 1862 by Mark F. Bielski (Savas Beatie, 2021).

Considering the size of the prize (New Orleans was the sixth largest city in the U.S. in 1860) and the profound effects its loss had on Confederate hopes for independence, it remains surprising that no definitive-scale history of the 1862 fall of New Orleans has been written. The Charles Dufour and Chester Hearn books, the only full-length published histories of the campaign (neither of which is exhaustive), leave more than enough room for more work, and the most recent scholarly monograph on the topic from Michael Pierson focuses narrowly on Fort Jackson's defenders. Part of the ECW series of popular overviews, Mark Bielski's A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy: The Fall of New Orleans, 1862 is not designed to fill that gap, but it brings welcome fresh attention to the topic.

Ever since the city's fall, opinion has swung back and forth over how much blame should land on the shoulders of Mansfield Lovell, the Confederate general tasked with New Orleans's defense. Current consensus finds most fault with planning and decision-making further up the chain of command in Richmond. Where Bielski's views stand on the matter is hinted at in the description: "Jefferson Davis ... understood the city’s importance—but he and his military leaders remained steadfastly undecided about where the threat to the city lay, sending troops to Tennessee rather than addressing the Union forces amassing in the Gulf. In the city, Confederate General Mansfield Lovell, a new commander, was thrust into the middle and poised to become a scapegoat. He was hamstrung by conflicting orders from Richmond and lacked both proper seagoing reconnaissance and the unity of command."

The book possesses the series hallmark of offering a plethora of illustrations in the form of maps, modern photographs, old artwork and drawings, and archival images. Fully focused on the narrative, it doesn't have the tour guide element that features prominently in many ECW books. Essay offerings in the appendix section include a sketch of Louisiana history between European settlement and 1860, a discussion of the Beauvoir estate, a history of Confederate Memorial Hall in New Orleans, and the contents of an interview that provides a secondhand account of the death and funeral of Jefferson Davis.