Qualla: Fort Jackson

Fort Jackson: Introduction

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bubba73 (Jud McCranie), Public domain. The mutiny started after twelve days of bombardment. Confederate soldiers garrisoning Fort Jackson on the lower Mississippi had endured nearly two weeks of mortar fire from Flag Officer David Farragut's Union fleet, beginning April 16, 1862. When Farragut's warships finally ran past the fort's guns on April 24, the garrison knew the game was up. The enlisted men turned on their officers, refused further orders, and the fort surrendered on April 28. Within weeks, New Orleans fell to the Union. Fort Jackson had been built specifically to prevent this -- a massive masonry stronghold designed after the War of 1812 on the advice of Andrew Jackson himself, positioned to make the Mississippi impassable to hostile fleets. It took Farragut twelve days to prove the theory wrong.

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Image: Bubba73 (Jud McCranie) | Public domain

Fort Jackson: Jackson's Fortress on the River

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Construction began in 1822 on the western bank of the Mississippi, roughly 70 miles south of New Orleans in Plaquemines Parish. The site was chosen on the recommendation of Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, who understood that the city's defense depended on c...

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Image: Public domain

Fort Jackson: Twelve Days Under Fire

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip remains one of the pivotal engagements of the Civil War's western theater. Farragut assembled a fleet of 47 vessels, including mortar schooners that lobbed explosive shells in high arcs over the fort's walls. For twelve days the bombardm...

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Image: Public domain

Fort Jackson: The Champagne Spy

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the battle, Fort Jackson served as a Union prison, and among its more unlikely inmates was Charles Heidsieck -- the French champagne magnate whose family name still appears on bottles worldwide. Heidsieck had traveled to the American South on business, attempting to collect...

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Image: Infrogmation of New Orleans | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort Jackson: Drowned History

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0. Water has always been Fort Jackson's most persistent adversary. Hurricane Betsy inundated it in 1965. Hurricane Camille struck in 1969. But nothing compared to 2005, when Hurricane Katrina's catastrophic storm surge submerged the fort under deep floodwaters that lingered for six ...

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Image: Infrogmation of New Orleans | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort Jackson: Oranges, Oil Birds, and the Parish Fair

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0. Since 1970, the grounds of Fort Jackson have hosted the Plaquemines Parish Fair and Orange Festival, an annual celebration that fills the old military grounds with the scent of citrus and the sound of carnival rides -- a vivid contrast to its wartime past. In 2010, the fort found...

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Image: Infrogmation of New Orleans | CC BY-SA 3.0