At Baton Rouge, Bodmer witnessed the departure of the steamboat Napoleon on the evening before his own vessel left the city. When he again observed the boat on the following day in the vicinity of Fort Adams, he made this quick study.

Maximilian's report of Bodmer's trip to New Orleans includes few exact references to dates. Fort Adams, located about midway between Natchez and Baton Rouge, was sighted on the afternoon of the same day that the Homer stopped at Natchez for fuel. The steamer passed the mouth of the Red River during the night, and early the following morning arrived at Baton Rouge, Louisiana's capital city. That afternoon, either January 10 or 11, it anchored for the night a few miles above New Orleans.

As the Homer descended the river below Natchez, Fort Adams appeared ahead on the left bank. Maximilian related in his subsequent account of Bodmer's voyage that Fort Adams was a place of about twenty houses, adding that "the real fort doesn't exist any more." Bodmer made two studies in this vicinity that include few details of the abandoned military installation but describe its setting in general terms. His rendering of a "distant view" of Fort Adams was made on January 9 or 10.