Memoir 2, Page 50, Fort Jackson

"There I was informed a mutiny among the rebel soldiers at Fort Jackson, below New Orleans which gave the Union forces an easy victory on the 24th of Apr. 1862."

As Woods writes, a mutiny did occur on April 27, 1862 at Fort Jackson which assisted Union forces in taking the fort and then New Orleans beyond it. This mutiny occurred at least partially because of horrible conditions within the fort, including flooding, geographic isolation, and a high rate of fire coming from the Union ships. A recent book by Michael D. Pierson, called Mutiny at Fort Jackson: The Untold Story of the Fall of New Orleans, also suggests that the mutiny may have occurred due to the high rate of poor immigrants who made up the majority of the forces inside Fort Jackson prior to the mutiny. According to Pierson’s argument, these immigrants were not convinced of the Confederacy’s intentions for non-slaveholders and so were less motivated to fight to the end. Similar to Woods, Pierson also argues that the large population of Unionists within New Orleans at the time may also have impacted and inspired the mutiny.