Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana and its second-largest city. Located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish. As its capital city, Baton Rouge is the political hub of Louisiana. It is the second-largest city in the state, with an estimated population of 227,715 in 2016. The metropolitan area surrounding the city, known as Greater Baton Rouge, is also the second-largest in Louisiana, with a population of 830,480 people as of 2015. The urban area has around 594,309
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