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 a crisis. Key Louisiana state employees are also members of the force so they can be mobilized more effectively in order to deal with emergencies. All units of the Louisiana State Guard were deployed in support of the Louisiana National Guard in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. State defense forces are authorized by the federal government under Title 32, Section 109 of the United States Code. Currently, 23 states and the territory of Puerto Rico maintain active state defense forces. In 2005, state defense forces from several states were activated to aid the National Guard in sheltering the