When that order was published, my enemies and the enemies of the country — they were not two classes then — immediately announced that I was using my troops in New Orleans for the purpose of private trade and speculation. It will be observed that the order says “property shall have safe conduct,” but I had to buy upon my own personal credit, for I had no public money on hand. So I opened a credit with Mr. Jacob Barker, a banker, who, upon pledge of the supplies purchased, advanced money on my purchases. After I had landed my troops I had a large number of transport vessels that had to be returned to New York and Boston in ballast.
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talk among the citizens of burning the city.
Some of the Confederate leaders favored it on the ground that there was a large foreign interest in the city, especially French, and that if the city were destroyed it would bring the war so home to them that France would try to cause it to be ended by intervention.
This destruction of property was also done on the outside of the city upon the ground that the supplies, especially cotton, would be destroyed by us upon capture.
To allay this fear I issued General Order No. 22:--
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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