Battle of Liberty Place: White League Stages Armed Coup Against Louisiana Government

The White League stages an armed insurrection against Louisiana’s Reconstruction government on September 14, 1874, in New Orleans. Five thousand White League members—Confederate veterans organized as “the military arm of the Democratic Party”—overwhelm 3,500 state police and militia forces in the Battle of Liberty Place, also known as the Battle of Canal Street. The paramilitary force occupies the state house and armory for three days, forcing Republican Governor William Pitt Kellogg to seek sanctuary in the Custom House, federal property protected by U.S. Army troops. The battle inflicts dozens of casualties and demonstrates that Republican governance in Louisiana exists only at the sufferance of federal military power—a dependency that will prove unsustainable as northern political will to maintain Reconstruction erodes.

The revolt has its origins in the disputed 1872 gubernatorial election, in which Republican Senator Kellogg took office only after being awarded victory by a Federal court. Supporters of Democratic-Conservative “Fusion” candidate John McEnery see clear evidence of Federal tyranny and organize the White League to violently overthrow the elected government. The White League, formed in March 1874 by Confederate veterans who participated in the 1873 Colfax massacre, describes itself as defending “hereditary civilization and Christianity” with the stated purpose of “the extermination of the carpetbag element” and restoration of white supremacy. The organization operates openly, with chapters throughout Louisiana coordinating political assassination and voter intimidation as standard Democratic Party tactics.

During the battle, former Confederate general James Longstreet—aligned with Kellogg and the Radical Republicans and commanding government forces—is shot and falls from his horse. The insurgent victory gutts the city’s Republican-dominated Metropolitan Police and the mostly Black militia, creating a vacuum that allows the White League to regain control of New Orleans by 1876. Governor Kellogg wires President Grant for federal troops, and within three days the White League retreats before the Army’s arrival. Critically, no one is prosecuted for the armed insurrection, establishing that white supremacist violence against elected governments faces no legal consequences.

The Battle of Liberty Place, coming just two weeks after the Coushatta massacre where the White League assassinated an entire parish government, proves strategically decisive in ending Reconstruction. Though Kellogg retains nominal power with federal backing, he has little or no authority in rural areas of the state. The rebellion demonstrates that maintaining Republican governance requires permanent military occupation—a level of commitment northern voters will not support. The election of Democrat Francis Nicholls as governor in 1876 and the subsequent establishment of the White League as the official state militia brings Reconstruction in Louisiana to an end. In 1891, the state erects a monument on Canal Street honoring the White League insurrection—celebrating armed rebellion against democracy and the violent overthrow of multiracial governance. The monument stands until 2017, a century-long testament to elite impunity for political violence.