Benjamin Flanders Benjamin Franklin Flanders ( January 26 , 1816 – March 13 , 1896 ) was appointed the 21st Governor of Louisiana during Reconstruction and was Mayor of New Orleans . Early life . Flanders was born in Bristol , New Hampshire , on January 26 , 1816 . At the age of 26 he graduated from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire . In January 1843 he moved to New Orleans and read law under Charles M . Emerson . The following year he left his study of the law to become a schoolteacher and principal . In 1845 , Flanders became editor of " New Orleans Tropic " , a local newspaper , and in 1847 he married Susan H . Sawyer in Bristol , New Hampshire . They went on to have six children . Political career . Flanders was elected an Alderman representing 3rd Municipal District of New Orleans from 1847 - 1852 . In 1852 , he was selected as the Secretary and Treasurer of the New Orleans , Opelousas and Great Western Railroad , a position he held until 1862 . In 1861 , he fled New Orleans , leaving his family behind , for having opposed secession . He made his way to Cairo , Illinois , Columbus , Ohio and eventually , to New York City . He did not return to New Orleans until April 1862 , when the city was captured by Union troops . On July 20 , he was appointed New Orleans City Treasurer and served until his election to Congress on December 12 , 1862 . He was elected along with Michael Hahn as at - large Representatives of Louisiana , defeating independent incumbent J . E . Bouligny . Flanders and Hahn were not seated in Congress until the last fifteen days of their terms in February 1863 . On July 13 , 1863 , Flanders was made the Captain of Company C , 5th Regiment Louisiana Volunteers , a Union Army unit . He was honorably discharged in August , 1863 , when he was appointed a Special Agent of the United States Treasury Department of the Southern Region by Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P . Chase . He held this position until 1866 . While in office he made commissions while selling confiscated cotton . In 1864 , Flanders campaigned for Governor , running a weak third place behind Michael Hahn and Fellows . He became the first Supervising Special Agent of the Freedmen ’ s Bureau , Department of the Gulf . At the same time , he led the movement to create a local Republican Party in Louisiana . He formed the Friends of Universal Suffrage with other scalawags to promote black suffrage and to repeal the Louisiana black codes . The tension over the rights of freed slaves would esclate into riots in 1866 . In 1867 , General Philip Sheridan , Commander of the 5th Military District , which included Louisiana and Texas , removed elected Governor James Madison Wells for not responding to the riots appropriately and for not advancing the rights of freed slaves . Sheridan appointed Flanders as Governor of Louisiana . About six months later , on January 1 , 1868 , Major General Winfield Scott Hancock , as the new military commander of Louisiana removed all radicals from state offices and Governor Flanders resigned on January 8 and was replaced by Joshua Baker who was appointed by General Hancock . In 1870 , Governor Henry C . Warmoth appointed Flanders the Mayor of New Orleans . He was later elected to a full two - year term as Mayor , serving until 1873 . President Ulysses S . Grant appointed Flanders Assistant Treasurer of the United States in 1873 . He ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for Louisiana State Treasurer in 1888 . Governor Flanders died at Ben Alva plantation in Lafayette Parish in 1896 . He was interred at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans .