Our Pick
Posted on @rawstates
Camp Parapet, the fort that never fired and the freedom camp it became
1862
Jefferson, Louisiana
Infrogmation of New Orleans · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Confederates began this earthwork line in 1861 to stop a Union attack coming down the Mississippi, and it was never used, because the fleet took New Orleans from below instead. Union troops occupied it in 1862 and it grew several large contraband camps where people escaping slavery arrived by the thousand. Brigadier General John W. Phelps asked Benjamin Butler for weapons to arm them, an early push toward Black enlistment in the Union army. The brick powder magazine inside its earthen mound is the only piece of the fortification still standing.
That was 1 of the hidden places.
Location: historic site
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