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 University and LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport. The University of New Orleans was a member of Louisiana State University from 1958 until 1963 as LSUNO and under its own name 1963 until 2011 when it was transferred to the University of Louisiana System by the Louisiana Legislature. In addition, LSU owns and operates the J. Bennett Johnston, Sr. Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD), which is a 1.3 GeV synchrotron radiation facility. Louisiana State University is ranked 140th in the "national universities" category and 70th among public universities by the 2019 U.S. News & World Report ranking of U.S. colleges.