Run the Route

A 3.4 mi run to honor and celebrate New Orleans' Own Civil War Hero Captain André Cailloux for the 163rd anniversary of his historic funeral
About this Event

A 3.4 mi run to honor and celebrate New Orleans' Own Civil War Hero Captain André Cailloux for the 163rd anniversary of his historic funeral, held July 29, 1863.

SCHEDULE

8:30 AM Meet up at @ 1542 N. Villere

9:00-10:30 AM (approx) 3.4 Mi Run. We will make 3 stops along the way.

10:00 -11:00 AM visit and pay respects at Black Square, St. Louis Cemetery #2, 300 N. Claiborne

11:00 AM-11:30 jog or walk back to 1542 N. Villere

We will visit the site of the Friends of the Order Hall, location of Cailloux' funeral, before tracing the route of his funeral procession through the Seventh Ward, French Quarter, and CBD, back to his final resting place in the Black Square at St. Louis Cemetery #2 on Bienville and North Claiborne. Participants will have the opportunity to enter the cemetery to pay respects to Captain Cailloux and the many heroes of the Louisiana Native Guard with whom he gave his life for freedom. We will jog or walk back to the starting location in the shade of the Claiborne overpass.

We will provide water and snacks at the start and end of the run.

QUESTIONS?

Contact organizers:

Chris Daemmrich - [email protected]

Kendric Perkins - [email protected]

ABOUT CAPTAIN ANDRÉ CAILLOUX

Born in Plaquemines Parish August 25, 1825. Enslaved from birth, Cailloux was moved as a teenager to New Orleans, where he learned the cigarmaking trade. He became free in 1846 through petition to the police jury.

In 1849 Cailloux purchased his mother, Josephine, to free her. On June 22, 1847 he married Felicie Coulon, a free woman of color also born enslaved. Felicie worked as a teacher at the Couvent School, or Institute Catholique, on Dauphine and Touro Streets. The couple raised five children Uptown on Baronne Street.

Cailloux was respected among New Orleans’ Free People of Color as a businessman, as a boxer, and as a civic leader. He served an officer of the Friends of the Order, a Black Catholic fraternal and mutual aid organization, and a member of the Native Guard, the city’s free Afro-Creole militia.

When New Orleans returned to Union control in summer 1862 the Native Guard became a Black regiment in the United States Army, and Cailloux a captain leading his Friends of the Order brothers in E Company. Cailloux and his men laid siege to the enslavers’ army at Port Hudson, where he was killed in action May 27, 1863, as commanded a heroic charge in French and English. 47 days later his remains returned to New Orleans for burial.

On July 29, 1863, at Felicie’s request, dedicated abolitionist Father Claude Paschal Maistre, founding priest of St. Rose of Lima Parish on Bayou Road, disobeyed pro-slavery Catholic leaders to eulogize Cailloux as a martyr for Black freedom. Thousands of people attended the Cailloux funeral procession from the Friends of the Order Hall on Urquhart Street past Union Army headquarters to St. Louis Cemetery #2.

Cailloux’ memory has inspired local and national campaigns for respect, citizenship, and freedom, from his death through Reconstruction and Jim Crow to the present.