THE CABILDO
In the Civil War the turn of affairs is different. Louisiana was one of the seven states to secede from the Union in 1860 and form themselves into the Confederate States of America. Of course this made New Orleans a Confederate city. Naturally, the north wanted to capture New Orleans in order to control the mouth of the Mississippi River. This time the attacking force is a Union fleet, and the defenders of the city are stanch Confederates who have done all in their power to prevent the approach of the Northerners. Across the river, near its mouth, two great cables have been stretched, and between the cables and the city are a Confederate fleet and two forts, one on each side of the river.
The Union fleet under David Farragut appears, opens fire on the forts, and keeps up the attack for six days and nights. Still the forts hold out. Then Farragut decides that since he cannot take the forts he will run his ships past them. But there are the cables blocking his way. The steamer Itasca undertakes to break them and rushes upon them under a raking fire from both forts. The cables snap. That night the Union ships, in single file, start up the river. At last the forts are passed and the Confederate ships overcome, but not the spirit of the people of New Orleans. They fight to the finish as best they can. Cotton bales are piled on rafts, set afire, and floated downstream among the Union ships. Still the ships come on. At least the Northerners shall not take the valuable stores of cotton, sugar, and molasses! So the cotton ships are fired, and hogsheads of molasses and barrels of sugar are hurriedly destroyed. When the Union forces land and takes possession, the people of New Orleans, though heartbroken, know that they have done their best.
Then comes peace. The war is over, and New Orleans is once more a city of the United States.
To-day New Orleans presents the unusual combination of an old city, full of historic interest, and a splendid new city, a place of industry, progress, and opportunity.
The successful building of a great city on the site of New Orleans is a triumph of engineering skill. As the city lies below the high-water mark of the Mississippi, it was necessary to build great banks of earth to hold back the water in the flood season. These levees, as they are called, form the water front of the city.
In the early days the only drinking-water in New Orleans was rain water caught from the roofs and stored in cisterns. Imagine a city without a single cellar. Then not even a grave could be dug in the marshy soil. The cemeteries were all aboveground. In some cemeteries there were tiers of little vaults, one above the other, in which the dead were laid. In others, magnificent tombs provided resting places for the wealthy. Such was old New Orleans. To-day modern sewers and huge steam pumps draw off the sewage and excess water, discharging them into the river, while a splendid water system filters water taken from higher up the river, giving a supply as pure as that enjoyed by any city in our land. The marshes have been drained by the construction of canals, which are used as highways for bringing raw materials from the surrounding country to the factories of New Orleans. Many of these canals extend for miles into the interior of the state of Louisiana.
