Given the prior, strained relations between the citizens of New Orleans and former Union General Benjamin Butler, it was no surprise to either General Nathaniel Banks, the current commander of the Union Department of the Gulf, or to President Abraham Lincoln that the civilian authorities in Louisiana, and in particular those in charge at New Orleans, were often less than supportive of the continuing Union occupation of both Louisiana’s urban and rural areas.
On December 24, 1863 Abraham Lincoln wrote Nathaniel Banks, restating his support of Banks and noting that “I have all the while intended you to be master….” President Lincoln emphatically reassured his general that the new, Louisiana state government was to assist, rather than thwart, Banks in his role as the supreme military authority in his department.