Residence #6 Officers’ Quarters showing Cistern, c.1900, Historic New Orleans Collection
This building housed officers like Second Lieutenant Bezaleel Wells Armstrong of the Second Dragoons, the first unit stationed here in 1834. Each floor had 4 rooms about 18 feet square. The first floor held the kitchen and dining rooms while the second was living space. River water was supplied through pipes from a large tank near the southwest tower and each officers’ quarters had its own 8,000 gallon cistern. Bathrooms were added in 1887, the same year all buildings on post were whitewashed. The Doric columns and symmetrical design typify the popular Greek Revival architecture of the early 1800s.
Second Lieutenant Bezaleel Wells Armstrong, 1840s
Enlisted Quarters
The four buildings around a quad just northwest of #6 were constructed to house four companies of enlisted infantrymen. The spacious galleries and large windows allowed for ample lighting and ventilation at a time prior to the invention of electricity and air conditioning. Open fireplaces heated both the first-floor mess hall and kitchen and second floor dormitories which housed an average of 45 men. In summer most soldiers slept on the gallery. There were no bathrooms. The men used outdoor privies and washed near the cisterns – large water tanks next to each building. Good swimmers bathed in the river at night but that was always risky due to the current.
The roadway around the enlisted quarters, Guerre Circle, is named in honor of BG Louis F. Guerre who served during the Mexican Border campaign of 1916 then reorganized Louisiana 1st Infantry Regiment into what became the 156th Infantry Regiment. He was Commanding General of Headquarters, 61st Infantry Brigade and commanded Camp Claiborne in 1944.
