Jackson Barracks - New Orleans, LA (The House that Katrina Re-Built)

Photo courtesy of www.gibbsconstruction.com 

6400 St.Claude Ave.

New Orleans, LA 70116

29.958366,-90.007172 

One thing we have learned so far is that New Orleans and the surrounding areas have seen their fair share of war. Dating as far back as 1722 the first rudimentary wooden barracks were erected on St. Peter and St. Anne Streets, fronting the Place d'Armes. After 1727, the barracks were moved to the square on Conde Street, now Chartres Street. These French Quarter barracks housed, in turn, the garrisons (French, Spanish and American troops) for over a century. In 1828, the barracks were used to quarter the United States Garrison for New Orleans. The United States Government sold the property in 1828 and New Orleans was without a garrison or barracks.
After the War of 1812, the U.S. Congress realized coastal cities were not properly defended, so they signed the Federal Fortifications Act in 1832, funding thousands of dollars to purchase land and build new barracks. On December 16, 1833 the original piece of land for this new fortification was purchased from Pierre Cotteret in the area that is now known as the Lower Ninth Ward. Construction was complete in 1836 and the location was officially called the New Orleans Barracks. The name was later changed to the Jackson Barracks, in honor of New Orleans hero, Andrew Jackson. It housed four infantry companies and came equipped with a prison, a storehouse and four 3-story guard towers, all surrounded by the river, levee and a ten foot tall brick wall.

During the Mexican–American War, the New Orleans Barracks was chosen as a post for sending and receiving troops. With the barracks having to treat so many of the wounded troops returning from Mexico, this initiated the construction of a federal hospital in 1849. It became the first public service hospital for veterans in the country. To make room for the new facility, additional property was

Old photo of the entire Jackson Barracks compound.

purchased to expand the barracks north of Saint Claude Avenue. The hospital consisted of four two-story buildings with a surgical operating-theater in the center. The hospital remained active until 1888 when it was demolished.
Following World War I, the barracks were no longer needed by the government and they donated it to the State of Louisiana who made it the official headquarters for the Louisiana National Guard. However, being the beloved contradictory government that it is, by the time World War II rolled around, they suddenly needed the barracks again so they took back control of it from the state. At the conclusion of the war, can anyone guess what happened? Yep, the government, once again, gave the barracks back to the state, only this time, with the provision that they could take back control whenever they wanted. Don’t you just love the powers that be?
Jackson Barracks would operate as the National Guard headquarters for years to come. In 1976, the barracks was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The following year, the Ansel M. Stroud, Jr. Military History and Weapons Museum was officially opened in the Old Powder Magazine and showcases artifacts from each of the nine major United States conflicts. Unfortunately, much of the history would literally wash away in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans. The disaster would bring in a huge storm surge that would ultimately breach the Industrial Canal levee submerging the entire Ninth Ward in fifteen to twenty feet of water, killing thousands. Jackson Barracks was equally destroyed, being almost completely wiped from the map. Luckily, with funding and the resilience of New Orleans’ residents, the majority of the barracks have been rebuilt from scratch, except the 1837 Old Powder Magazine and fourteen of the antebellum homes located in the original garrison.

The well-known garrison structure.

Years of haunted stories have come from soldiers who have stayed at Jackson Barracks. When all is quiet amongst the dorms and everyone is tucked in for the night, the sounds of marching soldiers and voices have been heard quite prominently. Many soldiers feel that the primary haunting here is of First Sergeant Henry Brunig who committed suicide in the barracks in 1937. Brunig was a caretaker and supply sergeant for the Washington Artillery and assisted with the care of the horses that pulled artillery pieces before the unit was fully motorized. He worked with these fine animals every day and had really formed a bond with them. One day, upon inspection, veterinarians deemed that many of these horses were no longer fit for military duty and twenty-one of them were shot and killed. Many feel that Brunig killed himself due to the depression and guilt of having so many of the horses he loved and cared for put to death. Some felt he had other mental issues that led to the suicide. Whatever the case may be, the sergeant’s ghost is regularly witnessed wandering through the barracks.
Personally, I have not heard of recent haunted encounters following Hurricane Katrina, but one can only assume that the raging waters did not wash away the spirits that were tied to Jackson Barracks. If anything, there may even be an increase due to the many that perished in the surrounding homes of the area. Driving through the Ninth Ward, you can still see vague remnants of the catastrophic storm, with a few shotgun homes still left abandoned with the spray-painted symbol of a circle with an “X” in the center. These symbols were used by search parties during the storm to annotate if any dead bodies were found. These faded markings are a grizzly reminder of such a tragic event and much of the death could have been easily avoided. However, that topic could be a book in its own.