A good argument could be made for Louisiana NOT to have sent most of its troops out of state early in the war and kept most of them here for defense, instead. But you have to consider the political ramifications of war. It would not have set well with Louisianians or other Confederates to have thousands of men sitting idle in Louisiana when Virginia, Missouri, and Tennessee were under attack. If Governor Moore had known the Yankees were going to attack New Orleans in early 1862 I'm sure he would have kept some troops back. But he did not know, and when the war broke out we were eager to get into the fight because no one thought the war would last very long. Also, the South was trying to create an independent nation and every state that seceded committed itself to that goal. The good of the whole was more important than the security of the few. Thus, Governor Moore was willing to send our troops to those areas most threatened.

I think the biggest mistake made was not taking more steps to protect the state from an enemy invasion up the Mississippi River from the Gulf, but if you put yourself in the shoes of the officials at the time you can understand why they acted as they did. Louisiana officials assumed Forts Jackson and St. Philip could stop any attack from the Gulf. After all, Fort St. Philip alone had stopped the British from coming up the river by boat during the War of 1812. The problem was that no one in America, North or South, had fought a war with modern steam-powered ships. I think David Farragut was probably as surprised as anyone how relatively easy it was for him to run past the forts. He was expecting very heavy losses, but as it turned out none of his ships were actually sunk. Hindsight is 20/20, and while we now realize that more should have been done to protect Louisiana from invasion, I'm not sure it's fair to criticize the officials at the time for not doing more considering the information they had at the time.