salom Baird, an able and prudent
officer of the regular army, was in command of the district, but was
purposely deceived by the municipal authorities, to the end that troops
might not be at hand to quell the riot and stop the assassination which
had been planned with diabolical ingenuity. The slaughter, in point of
numbers, resembled that of a brisk military engagement in the field.
The number killed outright was about forty. The wounded exceeded one
hundred and fifty, of whom perhaps one-third were severely injured,
many of them mortally. The city police of New Orleans aided the
rioters. General Sheridan, in command of the department, officially
reported that "the killing was in a manner so unnecessary and
atrocious as to compel me to say it was murder." The lamentable
transaction was investigated by a committee of Congress, composed of
Messrs. Eliot of Massachusetts, Shellabarger of Ohio, and Boyer of
Pennsylvania, the first two being Republicans, the last-named a
Democrat. An investigation was also made under the direction of the
War Department, by a commission of military officers, composed of
Generals Mower, Quincy, Gregg, and Baldy. These officers reported that
in their opinion "the whole drift and current of the evidence tend
irresistibly to the conclusion that there was among the class of
_violents_ known to exist in the State, and among the members of the
ex-Confederate associations, a preconcerted plan and purpose of attack
upon the convention, provided any possible pretext therefor could be
found."

The majority of the Congressional Committee took the same view,
declaring that "the riotous attack upon the convention with its
terrible results of massacre and murder was not an accident. It was
the determined purpose of the mayor of the city of New Orleans to
break up this convention by armed force." The Congressional Committee
did not make their investigation until the succeeding winter session of
1866-7. "We state one fact," said the committee, "significant both as
bearing upon the question of preparation and as indicating the true and
prevailing feeling of the people of New Orleans. Six months have
passed since the convention assembled, when the massacre was
perpetrated and more than two hundred men were slain and wounded. This
was done by city officials and New-Orleans citizens, but not one of
those men has been punished, arrested or even complained of. These
officers of the law, living in the