Mardi Gras Before Total War Mardi Gras in New Orleans has always been a public assertion of normalcy, which is why it disappears when war, unrest, or disease reshapes who controls the city’s streets. By the mid-nineteenth century, organized parades and elite krewes such as the  Mistick Krewe of Comus had transformed Carnival from a loosely observed season into a highly structured public event tied to civic identity and social order.  That structure, however, made Mardi Gras especially