Agent Matey at the Feet of the Ancients

About the Book

New Orleans Surrenders

The European Brigade was a troop of men formed by the European residents of New Orleans. Their aim was to protect themselves and families from a feared attempt by mobs to seize control of the city after the rebel troops left and before the Union troops arrived. Union Naval Forces fought their way up the Mississippi River past rebel forts and arrived off New Orleans on the 24th of April, 1862. Rebel troops began abandoning the city on April 23rd and were completely gone in several days. The city did not surrender until April 29th, and it wasn’t until May 1st that the first Union troops arrived. Europeans made up a large part of the population of the city at the time of the Civil War. The Confederate government permitted them the option of acting as auxiliary police rather than serving as Confederate troops.

The Brigade leader, General Paul Juge ordered his men to protect the Union surrender negotiators from the Mob which threatened to kill the Union officers as the talks proceeded. As a result many considered him to be pro Union. He was also derided for his relationship with a quadroon woman.

About the Author

Peter Juge is a former US Foreign Service officer and International Oil Company executive. With his wife and two children, Peter lived in Ethiopia, Malaya, Cameroon, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. He has also written a book about his “Third Culture” children growing up overseas “Come Taste the Wine,” published in 2001. He and Matey live in a retirement community for retired US Military and other US Government officers in Northern Virginia.