Louisiana Civil War Guide

24/09/2024

THIS WEEKEND!!! Make plans to come out to the park and experience an action-packed civil war battle! Battles are at 2:00pm on Saturday (9/28/24) and 1:30pm on Sunday (9/29/24).

22/09/2024

http://rootsfromthebayou.blogspot.com/2015/07/fort-hill-bloody-in-civil-war-battles.html?m=1

The following article appeared in the August 3, 1958 edition of the Monroe Morning World: Transcription below picture: Judge McGee...

22/09/2024

Footage from 2020 when I visited the remains of historic Fort Jackson in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, where the decisive April 1862 battle of Forts Jackson...

11/09/2024

11/09/2024

There are still 100s of tickets left, just not at 10AM. Scroll down and select view all event details to see all times available.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lighthouse-hayride-tickets-1005381321597?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0XwJCOc5gr6Ss7dUifQ9cOtPW9H1nsZtnxjcBj16RoFSE473R4kbzreEM_aem_58HQ0AtSi44SgfSk4jQhTw&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

11/09/2024

We are just one day away from Battle of Sabine Pass (Texas) 161 so take three minutes to learn how 46 soldiers beat 5,000!
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/sabine-pass

And here’s our video on Texas in the Civil War: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/videos/texas-civil-war

11/09/2024

A snippet of news from what was happening to the people of New Orleans at this time in 1862 living under the martial law of Union General Benjamin Butler.

25/08/2024

25/08/2024

Make plans to come out to the park and experience an action-packed civil war battle! Battles are at 2:00pm on Saturday (9/28/24) and 1:30pm on Sunday (9/29/24).

17/08/2024

New article spotlight: In “'A Big Job': A Statistical Analysis of the Confederate Post Hospital at Port Hudson, Louisiana, 1863," Fayetteville Technical Community College's Christopher Thrasher provides mathematical insights into the unique horrors of a Confederate hospital and the effectiveness of Civil War-era medical care. https://bit.ly/lhajournalissues

Not a member yet? Sign up today to access this article! https://bit.ly/lhamembership

17/08/2024

11/08/2024

The Desperate Struggle: Louisiana Civil War Compendium: A Military History of Campaigns & Battles 1861-1865

This book is a guide for the major Civil War campaigns and battles in Louisiana, 1861-1865. The Trans-Mississippi Theater of the Civil War has drawn plenty of attention from scholars who have studied the campaigns and battles that took place in Missouri, Arkansas, and the coastal expeditions agai...

11/08/2024

Looking for some outdoor fun with a mix of history? Learn more here ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/dpucnetu

11/08/2024

ATTENTION EDUCATORS!!! Register your group by September 16th. This is a free event for public, private, and homeschool students. Contact us with any questions - 318-484-2390.

11/08/2024

Presentation at Jefferson, TX

11/07/2024

Confederate Naval Memory on Lake Pontchartrain’s North Shore
by Neil P. Chatelain

You never quite know where you will run into artifacts, exhibits, and monuments related to the United States Civil War. The war’s memory penetrated across the nation, which is great because many areas have something to offer to those interested in learning more about the conflict. On a recent drive from Houston to New Orleans, I made a detour to Lake Pontchartrain’s north shore, where I had the chance to see some things tied to the Confederate Navy.

Let’s start with some history. Lake Pontchartrain, the body of water north of New Orleans, did indeed host some Confederate naval activity. In 1861 at the John Hughes shipyard on Bayou St. John, on Lake Pontchartrain’s southern shore, Confederate sailors outfitted the converted warships Florida, which later was renamed Selma and moved to Mobile, and Pamlico. Using designs made by Confederate naval constructor Sidney Porter, the same shipyard also constructed a pair of war steamers named Bienville and Carondelet, each small paddle-wheelers mounting a few heavy guns that became ready for service in March 1862. Cannons and soldiers loaned from the army garrison of New Orleans, which “was always willing and anxious to assist in every way,” helped man these two ships. There was even early experimental submersible activity as a prototype submersible named Pioneer reportedly sank a test ship; there were also plans in 1862 for the Bayou St. John shipyard to being working on a Lake Pontchartrain ironclad.

Read more here 👇
https://emergingcivilwar.com/2024/07/10/confederate-naval-memory-on-lake-pontchartrains-north-shore/

08/07/2024

GETTYSBURG (Pennsylvania) — Dedicated in June 1971, the Louisiana State Monument stands across from Pitzer's Woods off West Confederate Avenue. Out of the more than 3,000 Louisianans who marched to Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863, over 700 became casualties. Known as "Spirit Triumphant," this vivid monument includes a wounded gunner who is clutching a battle flag to his heart as the spirit above him holds a flaming cannonball and sounds a trumpet.

📸 Photo by Matthew Holzman

19/08/2022

KALB

10/08/2022

KALB

30/07/2022

Deadline tomorrow.
https://geauxguard.la.gov/la-guard-asks-citizens-for-base-renaming-recommendations/

Featured News News Releases La. Guard asks citizens for base renaming recommendations Louisiana National Guard 53 ViewsGeaux Guard, geauxguard, LANG, Louisiana National Guard, protect what matters, protectwhatmatters By Louisiana National Guard Public Affairs Office BATON ROUGE, La. – The Louis.....

27/10/2021

Civil War history casts a long shadow in Virginia, the birthplace of Confederate generals, scene of their surrender and now a crossroad of controversy.

10/10/2021

Click shop now for all book formats.

09/10/2021

In October 1862, Union General Benjamin Butler decided on an overall strategy of ridding the Lafourche region of the Confederates operating there. This region had become a conduit into New Orleans and forage area for Confederates lurking outside the city.

He organized a large operation. For starters, he prepared four light draft gunboats and dispatched them to Berwick Bay and Brasher City (now Morgan CIty) which was to be the ultimate objective of the expedition. Butler hoped that his infantry would sweep down Bayou Lafourche and the gunboats would provide cover and transport once in the Berwick Bay area.

Butler gave command to Godfrey Weitzel and placed 5,000 men under him. The men would be transported to the ruins of Donaldsonville and from there the campaign would begin.
In the immediate area the Confederates had only 850 troops present. Most were cavalry under Colonel W. G. Vincent who called for re-enforcement and two regiments of Louisiana infantry and one battery met him at Napoleonville in Assumption parish. All total General Richard Taylor could only mobilize 5,840 men in all of Western Louisiana. Several thousand of these troops were needed in the Northeast section of the state.

Most of Taylor’s force would be conscripts forced into service and many were poorly armed and even more lacked basic equipment for soldiering. After service of even a short time most went without descent shoes or tents for camp. The approximately 1,500 men that could be brought to the Lafourche region would have to meet the coming danger largely alone and at this point without hopes of anyone coming to their aid.

Union forces marched out of Donaldsonville on the 26th of October and the weather turned unseasonably cold. A freezing rain had come down and made conditions wet and miserable. The sugar grinding season as the harvest is called came to an early end as ice and blue-coats enveloped the fields along the narrow, black band of Bayou Lafourche.

Battle of Labadieville or Georgia Landing October 26, 1862

General Richard Taylor was confronted at once with his first campaign after returning to the state from Virginia. One of his first orders was to dispatch a capable subordinate to lead the now largely infantry force gathered at Napoleonville. The Bayou Lafourche region, a rich sugar producing area, remained vulnerable to capture ever since the Union fleet captured the Mississippi River and gateway to the region at Donaldsonville.

Bayou Lafourche is still a long narrow waterway flowing north to south and it split the settlements into two parts on either bank. The new commander Taylor sent, Alfred Mouton was an Acadian general from Vermillionville. A West Point graduate and son of a Louisiana governor, Mouton was known and loved by his men.

As Weizel advanced Mouton split his smaller force putting over eight hundred on the left bank and over five hundred on the right. The forces ran into each other soon after the march began and Mouton’s battery exhausted its ammunition before retreating back to a position above Labadieville.

Union columns of Weizel’s expedition continued their slow southward plodding. At every plantation the advance would be slowed by dozens of enslaved people coming up to the stars and stripes in hopes of escaping from slavery. Instead of a military campaign as the general expected he would be confronted first with a social revolution as slaves freed themselves. They looked to his command for deliverance.

The Union general found a temporary solution because he needed their labor. He had understood the nature of warfare along the Bayou that divided the country into two parts on either side of the bayou. He had packed with him a make-shift pontoon bridge that might allow for quick access to either side. The contraband slaves proved helpful in hauling it and setting it up on command.

At nine in the morning of the 26th of October, the Union forces crossed the bridge fashioned in place connecting both banks and concentrated their numbers on one side of the bayou so they might crash against only one portion of Mouton’s brigade. A pitched battle began on the right bank and the main Confederate battery ran out of ammunition quickly.

Union numbers were now of 2 to 1 on the field and proved decisive. After a good showing, the Confederates turned and retreated toward Brasher City. The South lost 5 killed, 8 wounded, and 186 soldiers went missing. Weizel paid a huge price for his assaults showing 200 to 300 men killed, wounded, and missing. Mouton moved to evacuate vital supplies around Berwick Bay.

22/09/2021

Battle of Stirling’s Plantation or Fordoche Bridge

September 29, 1863

In his summer attacks on various Union outposts in South Louisiana, Confederate General Taylor had largely ignored Morganza which guarded the northern reaches of the Atchafalaya basin just northwest of Baton Rouge. Following a withdrawal from the Lafourche region, Taylor looked for other prime targets of opportunity.

In the late summer of 1863, General U.S. Grant sent over an entire division, several thousand Union soldiers, to secure this area. The soldiers suffered in the terrible heat and humidity and all were plagued by pests there by standing water in the low lying ground. In command of the garrison forces of the 2nd division 13 Corps at was a career Army officer and West Point graduate. He had a distinguished name, General Napoleon J.T. Dana. His father and grandfather had been career officers all going back to the Revolutionary war. His dad had high hopes for his son by naming his after the greatest tactician of all time.

Dana had been severely wounded and left for dead during a battle during the Mexican War and had also spent months recovering from a severe wound taken at the September 17, 1862 Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg. He returned to active duty in July 1863 and took up command at Morganza which was not expected to be a front line assignment. Richard Taylor made it otherwise.

Following secret observation of Union forces Both Taylor and his subordinate General Alfred Mouton learned that Union detachments left Morganza for guard duty at approach roads and bridges for routine guarding assignments. One such contingent of a thousand men led by Lt. Col. J.B. Leake, took up posts at Sterling’s Plantation near Fordoche Bridge.

On September 19, Mouton gathered several hundred troops and placed them under Brig. Gen. Tom Green and his seasoned Texas cavalry. Green’s force crossed the Atchafalaya River on the 28th, and at first light the next day, his men moved into position undetected by Dana or Leake. With a shock wave, the men hit Union pickets with a burst of battle at Fordoche Bridge around noon. The surprise proved complete and the disorganized Union men either ran or gave up easily. General Dana sent re-enforcements immediately to the area. By the time of their arrival, the battle has ended and Green turned back for the river and safety.

A rain storm hampered pursuit and allowed Green to get away. Over four hundred-fifty Union forces were killed, wounded, or captured that day. This engagement proved to be one of the last, and certainly the most successful, hit and run operations that Taylor launched all that summer.