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
Harrisonburg, Louisiana with easy access to the Mississippi River and New Orleans. The Harrisonburg Road ran through the area as it crossed Louisiana between Mississippi's Natchez Trace and Texas' El Camino Real. Harrisonburg was considered for the new site of the Louisiana state capital when the legislature decided to move it from New Orleans after the Civil War. Harrisonburg is located in northern Catahoula Parish at (31.772177, -91.827403), on the west bank of the Ouachita River. Louisiana State Highway 8 passes through the village, leading northeast across the Ouachita to Sicily Island, and southwest to U.S. Route 84 near Catahoula Lake. Jonesville,