(8-2007) Enlarge Pentagon Barracks. View from atop the Louisiana State Capitol
  
History
 
Photo by Joel Manuel, Baton Rouge, LA

(3-1994) Pentagon Barracks. Louisiana State Capitol in background

(Wartime) Pentagon Barracks. Compare with photo at top right

(3-1994) Pentagon Barracks

(8-2007) Enlarge The Old Louisiana State Capital, 1849. View looking toward the Mississippi River from the east
 
In January 1861, members of a secession convention, acting on the wishes of Louisiana's citizens, met in the capital and voted to remove the state from the Union. In the summer of 1862, Union forces captured Baton Rouge and sent the state government fleeing first to Opelousas and later to Shreveport. Federal troops turned the State Capital into a barracks and briefly a prison for Confederates captives. On December 28, 1862, soldiers preparing supper accidentally started a grease fire in the southeast corner of the ground floor that quickly engulfed the surrounding area. The fire totally gutted the building. Only charred rubble remained within the three-foot thick walls. During Reconstruction, the state capital relocated to New Orleans. The building was later rebuilt and in 1882, the Louisiana legislature again met in the State Capital in Baton Rouge

Photo by Joel Manuel

(3-1994) The Old Louisiana State Capital. View looking southeast from the Mississippi River