Louisiana secession Orleans. Two days before the city surrendered in April 1862, Moore and the legislature abandoned Baton Rouge as the state capital, relocating to Opelousas in May 1, 1862. Governor Moore began to organize military resistance at the state level, ordered the burning of cotton, cessation of trade with the Union forces, and heavily recruited troops for the state militia. However, despite a brief check at Baton Rouge, Union forces continued to advance into Louisiana and up the Mississippi, and the capital was moved again to Shreveport. New Orleans, Louisiana, the largest city in the entire South, was strategically important as
Louisiana State Guard to provide a military response to man-made or natural disasters, insurrections, or military invasions while the National Guard was federalized had to raise their own state defense forces to replace these National Guard units. The Louisiana State Guard was authorized by the Louisiana State Legislature in 1942 by a vote of 85-5 in favor of creating the state militia. Unlike other state guards, who were organized and trained around the possibility of repelling an invasion, the Louisiana State Guard was created with the intent to primarily take over civil defense responsibilities such as evacuating civilians during an attack or arresting