Several small towns of Filipinos existed in Louisiana from the late 1700s onward. These communities kept mainly to themselves. The men are believed to have been the 'Spanish fishermen' recruited during the 1815 battle of New Orleans, but there is no solid proof of that assertion.
Because Louisiana was a Confederate state, it is possible that some of the men were put into military service of the Confederacy. However, the best known of the Filipino villages was never visited by Louisiana state officials, tax collectors, or probably even priests. No outsiders were aware of the Filipino villages until a magazine article was published in 1883 describing life there. Chances are good that at least a few of the Filipino men found themselves swept up in the universal draft of able-bodied men in 1862.
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