Forts Jackson, St. Phillip And Camp Parapet

Building defensive fortifications to protect New Orleans has always been a special challenge to Army engineers. The city has a really unique geography. It is nearly surrounded by water - lakes, the Mississippi River, bayous, marshes and swamps. It was necessary to protect New Orleans, not only from naval forces entering the lakes, but those coming up the river, also.

South of New Orleans, two forts were built to accomplish this: Fort Jackson on the West Bank, and Fort St. Philip on the East Bank, opposite Fort Jackson. Together, they commanded the entrance to the Mississippi River.

Fort Jackson, built upon the recommendations of Gen. Andrew Jackson, following the War of 1812, replaced an earlier fortification, Fort Bourbon, which was located less than two miles away. Fort Bourbon was an earth and timber breastworks redoubt built in 1792. It was destroyed by a hurricane, and eventually surrendered to the Mississippi River.

In his attack upon New Orleans during the Civil War, Farragut's fleet pounded both forts for ten days, before they surrendered to the Union forces. In the years that followed, Fort Jackson was used as a prison, a training facility, and fortified again during the Spanish American War, when disappearing guns with elevators were added, along with additional concrete bunkers. During World War I, it was once more used as a training facility, and then was retired after the war. Fort Jackson is located along LA Highway 23, at Plaquemines Bend (about 12 miles above Venice, LA), and is now accessible to the public as a historical tourist and cultural recreational center.

Originally built by the Spanish Governor at the same time as Fort Bourbon, Fort St. Phillip (Fort San Felipe) commanded the eastern side of the Mississippi River entrance, and was used through the Civil War. It, like its West Bank counterpart, Fort Jackson, was declared surplus after World War I. Fort St. Phillip is accessible only by boat, because it is several miles south of the end of LA Highway 39, in East Plaquemine Parish.

Camp Parapet, though not a fort, was one of several small fortifications built on the Mississippi River, in Jefferson Parish, by Confederate forces, to defend New Orleans from attacking forces coming down the river. Its function was similar to that of Forts St. Philip and Jackson. Today, all that remains is the Powder Magazine, a brick structure encased in a mound of dirt. It is located near the river, one block from Causeway Blvd., at the end of Arlington Street.

It is fenced in, surrounded by residences, but is available for visits and tours by appointment only, by calling the Jefferson Parish volunteer curator, at 504-833-8883. It is requested that planned visits include several people or a small group for the visit. There is no charge for admission.