Baton Rouge, LA

Headnote

Baton Rouge, La. Capital of the state, and seat of justice of East Baton Rouge Parish. Situated on the E. bank of the Mississippi, 117 miles above New Orleans. It consists chiefly of one street, which is built on a gentle swell of land, 40 or 50 feet above high-water mark. The seat of government has lately been established at this place.  It contains four or five churches of different denominations, a court house, jail, penitentiary, and U.S. barracks, which are fine buildings, standing on elevated ground, a short distance E. of the town.... As it is only since December, 1849, that Baton Rouge became the capital of the state, no account of the public buildings can be given at present. (Gazetteer of the United States of America, 1854)

Place Unit Type
City or Town
Containing Unit
East Baton Rouge Parish, LA

Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Hayward)

Gazetteer/Almanac
Baton Rouge, La. Capital of the state, and seat of justice of East Baton Rouge Parish. Situated on the E. bank of the Mississippi, 117 miles above New Orleans. It consists chiefly of one street, which is built on a gentle swell of land, 40 or 50 feet above high-water mark. The seat of government has lately been established at this place.  It contains four or five churches of different denominations, a court house, jail, penitentiary, and U.S. barracks, which are fine buildings, standing on elevated ground, a short distance E. of the town. This is the seat of Baton Rouge College. (See Colleges.) As it is only since December, 1849, that Baton Rouge became the capital of the state, no account of the public buildings can be given at present.
John Hayward, Gazetteer of the United States of America… (Philadelphia: James L. Gihon, 1854), 280.
Date Type
In Baton Rouge, Louisiana militia take control of massive stocks of arms at the Federal Arsenal Battles/Soldiers
In Louisiana, a Mississippi steamboat's boiler ruptures and scalds forty-five people aboard to death Crime/Disasters
Louisiana Democratic Convention selects Senator John Slidell as preferred candidate for President Campaigns/Elections
Louisiana secedes from the Union Lawmaking/Litigating
Louisiana's secession convention assembles in Baton Rouge Lawmaking/Litigating
Mississippi steamboat catches fire in the middle of the night and forty-three people are drowned. Crime/Disasters
- On the Mississippi, a Confederate warship makes a bold breakout and almost reaches the open sea Battles/Soldiers
President Johnson asks the Louisiana legislature to postpone its call for a new constitution. Campaigns/Elections
Steamboat Princess explodes and sinks on the lower Mississippi with heavy loss of life Crime/Disasters
Burial Place of
Name Type
State Capitol, Baton Rouge, LA Location or Site
Date Title
New York Times, “Terrible Steamboat Disaster,” March 1, 1859
William T. Sherman to Ellen Sherman, October 29, 1859
Charleston (SC) Mercury, "Federal Troops in the South," November 20, 1860
How to Cite This Page: "Baton Rouge, LA," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/9443.