A cigar maker and a successful boxer in the 1800s, André Cailloux also was the first Black officer killed in action during the Civil War.
“Committed to leading his troops by example,” a 2023 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum article states, “Cailloux endeavored to be the personification of bravery and courage.”
Cailloux was born into slavery near Plaquemines Parish in 1825. According to the American Battlefield Trust, he and his father were taken to New Orleans after his mother was sold in 1830. As he grew up, he learned to read and write in English and French as well as how to make cigars.
“He may have been allowed to earn money for himself,” the Trust states, “or there may have been an arrangement with his enslavers that extra work or money went toward his eventual emancipation.”
Set free in 1846, Cailloux was married and the father of five. He saved enough money to buy land in 1848 and his mother’s freedom in 1849. In August 1862, Cailloux helped to organize the Union’s all-Black 1st Louisiana Native Guard and became a captain.
On May 27, 1863, his company was ordered to attack Port Hudson, “the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River” north of Baton Rouge.
Even though it was considered a suicide mission, “Cailloux urged his men on,” the Trust states. “His left arm was broken, but he gestured forward with his sword in his right hand until pieces of an artillery shell struck him in the head, killing him instantly.”
Thousands participated in Cailloux’s funeral procession in New Orleans on July 29, 1863. He was buried in St. Louis Cemetery #2. The André Cailloux Center for Performing Arts and Cultural Justice was named in Cailloux’s honor in 2022. A park near the center also bears his name.
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.
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