The black Union Civil War hero you never heard of: Andre Cailloux

civil war
Photo credit (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Some heroes are marginalized by history, their actions lost to time amidst the chaos and confusion of bloody battlefields, their accomplishments swept aside by a population that wants to put the war behind them and rebuild. Some heroes are marginalized simply because they were a different skin color. Andre Cailloux is one such hero.

Cailloux was born into slavery in 1825 near New Orleans, Louisiana. He was owned by the Duvernay family and apprenticed as a cigar maker until the age of 21 when he petitioned for his freedom and it was granted. A year later he married Félicie Coulon, a Creole woman who had been freed from slavery when her mother paid her slave master for the price of her purchase. 

Over the next several years Cailloux became a fixture of his community. Through his work and leadership some 10,000 free men and women of color in and around New Orleans, became fluent in both English and French.

In 1861, Cailloux was commissioned as an officer and was a member of the Confederate Native Guard. However, his unit never saw action and was disbanded when the Union forces captured New Orleans. 

By 1862 Union General Benjamin Butler organized an all-black regiment in New Orleans after being denied more resources from the Secretary of War. In order to make up for this deficiency in manpower, he recruited freed slaves. Andre Cailloux served in the unit as a captain, and according to some accounts was despised by Butler who wanted the black unit commanded only by white officers. Cailloux's unit was assigned manual labor tasks until the siege of Port Hudson.

In May of 1863, Union Forces lay siege to the Confederate stronghold of Port Hudson on the banks of the Mississippi River. General Nathaniel P. Banks (who had replaced Butler by this time) ordered Cailloux and his men to charge fortified enemy positions. It was a suicidal mission that essentially used black soldiers as cannon fodder, as detailed by a profile in the New York Times. Cailloux led the charge, shouting orders to his men in both English and French even after taking a shot through the arm. He was then nearly cut in two by a Confederate artillery shell and died on the battlefield.

The Confederate general in charge of Port Hudson called for a ceasefire so that casualties could be removed from the battlefield, to which Gen. Banks replied that he had none. Cailloux remains rotted on the battlefield for a month and a half before being recovered, his body identified by a ring he wore. When his body was returned to New Orleans in July, he was given a hero's burial which was attended by thousands of people.

Despite his life accomplishments and heroism on the battlefield, Cailloux remains an obscure figure in history, with no statue to commemorate him and few passages about his life in history books.

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Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.