A great impetus to the prosperity of the city was given in 1812, when the first steamboat ar rived from Pittsburg. The MissNsippi was now to become a great highway of commerce, and New Orleans was to flourish accordingly. Growth was checked for a time by the war with Great Britain, which followed soon. When, however, Genera] Jackson won his great victory at Chal mette in 1815 (see NEW' ORLEANS, BATTLE OF), attention was speedily directed to the city that lie had saved, and its population increased 'more rapidly than ever before. By 1830 it had risen to 46,000, and in 1840 to 102,000. The city was extended beyond its old boundaries, gas and other improvements were in trodueed,and a more cosmopolitan spirit began to appear. In 1837 the city became involved in the speculative mania of the day and suffered se verely from the ensuing panic. Nothing, how ever, could permanently check the prosperity of New Orleans, not even the terrible ravages of the yellow fever, which in the decade before the Civil War were more fatal than ever before. In 1836 the Creoles were so little in accord with the Americans that a novel form of government was tried. The city was divided into three municipal ities, each with a recorder and a council of alder men. There were a mayor and a general council (embracing the councils of the different munic ipalities) to control the affairs of general inter est, but each municipality could tax itself and manage its local affairs. This anomalous state of things continued until 1852. In 1849 the State capital w•as transferred to Baton but later New Orleans was again for a time the capital (1808-80).
In the Civil War New Orleans was an im portant centre of Confederate military and com mercial operations until captured by a Federal fleet under Admiral Farragut in April, 1862. (See FORT JACKSON.) Thereafter it proved an important strategic point for attacks upon other parts of the Confederacy. Under the administra tion of Gen. B. F. Butler (q.v.), which lasted from Slay to December, 1862, the city suffered the extreme rigor of martial law. Butler's suc cessor, Gen. N. P. Banks, was far more concilia tory. During the period of reconstruction New Orleans was the headquarters of the politicians and of (lie 'carpetbaggers' who, with their freed men allies. governed the State during this stormy period. In 1866 there was a serious riot at Me chanics' Institute (now Tulane Hall), in which a constitutional convention was broken up by the Democrats and a number of persons killed.
In 1874 the Republican Governor, William PiIt Kellogg, fearing an uprising of (lie p‘ople,odenied the inhabitants the right to bear arms, and when ever arms WWe found MI any person they were seized by the police. 'The White League,' a Demo era tic organiz,ation, determined to procure arms at all hazards. Arms were ordered by steamer from the North, and when the steamer arrived at the levee, the League, arming itself as best it emild, marched down to the dock on Canal Street to receive them. here a conflict was precipitated with the metropolitan police of the Governor. The police were scattered, and the artillery which they had placed upon the levee was turned against themselves. The White Leaguers lost sixteen men. Seventeen years later a monument was erected to their memory on the spot where they fell. While an appeal to the President once more restored the Governor to power, this affair of September 14, 1874, is generally regarded as the beginning of the end of reconstruction in Louisi ana. In 1877 the United States troops were with drawn, and with them the 'earpetbag' rule disap peared. With a free government restored, the city turned its attention to the development of its great opportunities, and steady progress has marked its subsequent history. In 1884 a Cotton Centennial Exposition was held here—the first bale of cotton exported from this country having been shipped from Charleston in 1784. In 1880 the capital of the State was remo•ef1 from New Orleans. In 1891 nine Italians, members of the Mafia (q.v.), who had been arrested for the murder of the chief of police, David C. Hennessy, were lynched by a mob, after being acquitted by the courts. This gave rise to considerable con troversy between the United States and the Italian governments.
Consult: Standard History of Yew Orleans (Chicago, 1900) ; King, Yew Orleans, the Place and the People (New York, 1896) ; Martin, His tory of Louisiana (New Orleans, 1882) ; Gayarri, History of Louisiana ( ib., 1903) ; King and Fieklen, History of Louisiana (ib., 1893) ; War ing and Cable, "Social Statistics of Cities, History and Present Condition," in Tenth United States Census (Washington, 1881) ; Howe. "Mu nicipal History of New Orleans," in Johns Hop kins Unirersity Studies. ser. vii.. No. 4 (Balti more, 1889) ; Commercial, Industrial, and Finan cial Outlook for New Orleans (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1894).