These homes near the southeastern flank of the arsenal at Baton Rouge were ordered destroyed by Union Colonel Halbert E. Paine after the surprise Confederate attack on August 5, 1862 so that they would not afford shelter to any potential attackers. The Union would abandon Baton Rouge without being attacked again. Instead they headed to New Orleans under the orders of General Butler.
Lytle Photography
File from <i><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://archive.org/stream/photographichist02mill#page/n141/mode/1up">The Photographic History of The Civil War in Ten Volumes: Volume Two, Two Years of Grim War</a></i>. The Review of Reviews Co., New York. 1911. p. 141.