Confederate Retreat Route — City Hall to Train Station

When Admiral David Farragut’s fleet ran the gauntlet past the forts south of the city in April 1862, New Orleans fell without a ground battle. Confederate General Mansfield Lovell retreated from City Hall through the CBD to the train station, evacuating what troops he could before Union forces occupied the city. The route from Lafayette Square to the old Canal Street depot traces the Confederate withdrawal — the moment the richest city in the Confederacy changed hands and the course of the western war shifted permanently.