- ness of their request to General Banks to be sent to
the field of active duty, and to be put in the front of the fight.
When New Orleans was captured by General Butler, he found there a regiment of colored men bearing the name of the "Native Guard." These men had been compelled to serve under the rebels; but when the latter left the city, the former refused to follow, and embraced the earliest opportunity to offer their services to the Union cause. They were at once accepted by General Butler, under the title of the first Louisiana regiment.
The census of 1860 placed the number of the inhabitants of the city of New Orleans at 175,000. Of these, 15,000 were free colored, 10,000 were slaves, and the remainder were whites. The free colored men were taxed for an average of $1000 to each person, while the white were taxed for only $732 to each person. The first Louisiana regiment was composed principally of this class of the free black population. The professions, the mercantile, and the trades were well represented, while not a few were men of extreme wealth. Nearly all were liberally educated; some were scholars of a high order. The brave, the enthusiastic, and the patriotic found full scope for the development of their powers in this regiment. One of the most efficient of the officers was Captain Callioux, a man whose identity with his race could never be mistaken, for he prided himself on being the blackest individual in the Crescent City. Whether in the drawing-room or on the parade, he was ever the centre of attraction. Finely educated, polished in his
