The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-07-09
MILITARY NEW ORLEANS.
SUB Walls, BAST1ONS. 1ORTRESSEG
IND SOLDIERS OF n CENTURY AGO.
What An Enemy WOuld Have Enc0un-
tered Had he Attempted to Attack
the City.

There Is something eminently respect
able and dignified in q city havin)
figured. at some time, as walled town
Chester and York, dried up and antiqu
ated as they are, still claim--and get
too-respect and consideration owe
busting Liverpool and smoking Man
shester, simply because they lived II
history as walled cathedral towns, wher
their now mighty neighbors were bu
open villages.
New Orleans can claim the same SUI
periority over her sisters OF this coun.
try. New York never had ANYTHING
nearer u wall to boast OF than a rickety
old fence, back OF the town, to keep pre-.
datory Indians from sneaking into the
boweries there, and stealing apples and
chickens. San Augustine has, 1t Is true,
q dilapitated brick wall still standing,
with hole In it for driving watermelon
carts through--tbey call 1t a gate--but,
then, San Augustine IL not much OF q
city anyhow, and has been dead these
three centuries or more, and manages
TO make very precarious living on. it's
crops OF oranges, Northern invalids and
melons.
New Orleans can boast OF once having
been q fortress, second only to Metz
and Strassburg. 1t had very military,
very threatening and dangerous look
on the map OF that day, with its forts
and redoubts, its bastions and its COW
cred ways, its scarps, counters carps,
glacis, friezes, revetmenrs, and every.
thing else military in name. A century
ago we could boast OF our walls virgin
walls, too; no one had ever stormed
them, no one had ever tried 10 climb
over them; more, no unfriendly person
had ever been near enough to geAeven
a glance at them. Whether they were
OF any practical use in those days may
we'll be doubted; but, to us OF this day,
they certainly have been benefit, for
to them we owe the beauty and width Of
canal, Rampant and Esplanade, whose
neutral grounds mark our ancient forti-
fications, as the boulevards Of Paris
mark its older and dismantled walls
New Orleans was well defended then.
Forts innumerable were scattered over
the country, generally where they were
least needed. Suppose an enemy, with
evil designs upon Louisiana, had deter
mined on the capture OF the city, what
would he not have encountered before
he could have become its master? First,
he would have found at the Balize a
formidable fort, built on the treacher-
GUS mud, at considerable expense This
Tort figured in at least one long and
bloody war which history has somehow
neglected to preserve. In the winter of
1898, O skiff load Of marines from the
French sloop La Parisienne, attacked
the Balize and captured it with all it's
garrison-four men. Loss, a pack of
cards and an old pistol. Masters
OF the fort, the French vigor-
ously and courageously maintained
hny al f~r .xI
all the odds of Spain. CarOndelet, then
Governor. apd shc eshv, r,pnan1ii q.
thorities, were greatly alarmed at this
loss. Some months after, a company OF
Spanish troops was sent down to the
Balize, the fort stormed in noble style
and the four imprisoned Spaniards that
had served as a garrison released, no.
body being hurt on either side IN TINS
second battle OF the Balize. The French
left Immediately upon the appearance
of the Spaniards, carrying off as tro-
phies the four muskets they had cap
tured and some old, stale, damaged
pork and crackers as rations, to the
great delight of the garrison, who. now
counted on getting something fresh.
And thus, by Spanish valor, was the
enemy repulsed from before the city
and an end put to this bloody Franco
Spanish war.
AT English Turn, quite distance up
the river, was second fortress orlgl-
nally designed, after the grand manner
In which the defences OF New Orleans
were conceived, for forty cannon. They
did get few small guns, but the troops
did not worry or bother over them In
the least, finding life far pleasanter up
at the cabarets in the city, and reason
ing. very correctly too, that IL the en-
emy's ships could sail up the Mlssis-
sippi river against the current, contrary
winds, etc, nothing in the world they
could do with their rusty. oid guns
would have the least effect in delaying
them.
Above the city, likewise, were num-
Der of forts, designed for keeping the
Indians in order and distributing bad
rum and smallpox to the general paclfi-
cation and civilization Of the country.
The city had little to fear from the In
dian Kings. as the French sarcastically
used to style the dirty, drur ken, mis-
cradle, half naked redskins wrapped in
old discarded blankets, who bossed 1t
over a score or two OF wretches more
miserable than themselves, for al
though they might bulldoozle few
poor trappers or farmer or so, they
would never have dared to come within
range of the city cannon.
In the rear OF the town, commanding
the entrance OF Bayou st. John, stood,
and stands to this very day, small fort
OF brick and earth, now newly painted
and repaired, and debased to the condl-
fion OF a restaurant. A few old guns
lie around the yard, half buried in the
earth, probably as useful there as they
ever were in the old days, for no enemy
more dangerous than some predatory
gar-fish in the bayou, ever disturbed the
SInnnv ouint of old Fort St John.
Suppose some adventurous enemy
had attacked the fort, silenced its guns,
stormed its walls, and then triumphant,
" dragged their boats over the three,
foot bar at the mouth OF the bayou, in
how much better condition WOULD ne
have been A few miles ol
weary struggling through the shallow,
n,nddy stream, and he would have
found himself In dismal unfathomable
cypress swamp. the resort of alligators
lepers. thieves and runaway negroes
x,,an ofalN fhrArIUh this