Col. Charles D. Dreux
(Dreux’s/Rightor’s) Battalion Volunteer Infantry
Organization: Organized with five companies at Pensacola, Florida on April 16, 1861. It was originally attached to the 1st Infantry Regiment Regulars. Mustered into Confederate service at Richmond, Virginia on June 11, 1861. A sixth company was assigned July 1861. Disbanded on May 1, 1862. Company D assigned to 1st Infantry Regiment.
First Commander: Charles D. Dreux, LTC [killed July 5, 1861]
Field Officers: James H. Beard, MAJ [July 5, 1861]; Nicholas H. Rightor, MAJ, LTC [July 5, 1861]
Assignments: Pensacola (Apr-May 61); Department of the Peninsula (Jun-Oct 61); Williamsburg and Spratley’s [B.S. Ewell’s Command], Department of the Peninsula (Oct 61); Griffith’s Brigade, Magruder’s Division, Magruder’s Command, Department of Northern Virginia (Apr-May 62); Griffith’s Brigade, Magruder’s Division, Army of Northern Virginia (May 62)
Battles: near Newport News (July 5, 1861); Operations on Back River (July 24, 1861); Young’s Mill (October 21, 1861); Yorktown Siege (April-May 1862); Lee’s Mill (April 5, 1862)
From Bergeron, La. Confed. Units, 148-49:
"The five original companies of this battalion went to Pensacola, Florida, in mid-April, 1861, as a part of the 1st Louisiana Regulars Infantry Regiment, which had not yet completed its organization. "This regiment was organized February 5, 1861, as part of the Louisiana State Army and transferred to Confederate service on March 13 with about 860 men. The regiment received orders in early April to report for duty at Pensacola, Florida. Only three companies—A, B, and C—had completed recruiting at that time, so the governor called upon volunteer units to fill out the regiment’s organization. Five companies responded and went to Pensacola with the three companies already mentioned. There the men spent the next several weeks drilling."] By late May, the remainder of the 1st Regulars’ companies had finished recruiting and had reported for duty at Pensacola. The five original companies then received orders to go to Virginia and left on May 30. On June 11, at Richmond, the companies were organized as the 1st Louisiana Infantry Battalion. They soon moved to join the garrison at Yorktown. Colonel Dreux took 20 men from each company on July 5 to ambush some enemy soldiers near Newport News<. In the brief skirmish that occurred, Dreux and 1 other man were killed. Dreux thus became the first Louisiana officer, and probably the first Confederate officer, killed in the war. [Company C(2) joined the battalion on July 16 from the 1st (Nelligan's) Louisiana Regiment.] The battalion continued to do picket duty on the Peninsula until April, 1862, when General George B. McClellan’s Union army began operations against the Confederate defenses. On April 5, the men fought in a skirmish near the junction of the Warwick and Yorktown roads. Their term of enlistment expired during these operations, but the men agreed to remain in service until the operations ended. On May 1, just prior to the retreat of the army to Richmond, the battalion disbanded. Many of the men enlisted in a battery formed by Captain Fenner. The term of service of Company D had not expired, and it was assigned to the 1st [Nelligan's] Louisiana Regiment [on June 27]. In all, some 545 men served in the battalion. There were no battle deaths besides the 2 on July 5, 1861, but 16 men died of disease."
Henry Watkins Allen
ALLEN, Henry Watkins, soldier and statesman, born in Prince Edward County, Virginia, 29 April 1820; (1. in the city of Mexico, 22 April 1866. His father, a physician of note, removed to Lexington, Mo., while Henry was young. The latter, at his solicitation, was taken from the shop where he was employed and placed in Marion College, No., but, in consequence of a dispute with his father, he ran away and became a teacher in Grand Gulf, Bliss. Then he studied law, and was in successful practice in 1842 when President Houston called for volunteers in the Texan war against Mexico. He raised a company, and acquitted himself well during the ,campaign, then resumed his practice in Grand Gulf, and was elected to the legislature in 1846. lie settled a few years later on an estate in West Baton Rouge, and was elected to the Louisiana legislature in 1853. A year later he went to Cambridge University to pursue a course of legal studies. In 1859 he went to Europe with the intention of I aking part in the Italian struggle for independence, but arrived too late. Hie made a tour through Europe, the incidents of which are recounted in "'gravels of a Sugar Planter." He was elected to the legislature during his absence, and on returning 1ook a prominent part in the business of that body. He had been a Whig in politics, but had joined the .Democratic Party when Buchanan was nominated for president in 1856. When the civil war broke out he volunteered in the confederate service, was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel, and was stationed for some time at Ship island. He was subsequently made colonel of the 4th Louisiana regiment, and was appointed military governor of Jackson. He fought gallantly at Shiloh, where he was wounded. At Vicksburg he rendered important service in the construction of fortifications, a part of the time under fire. At the battle of Baton Rouge he commanded a brigade, where he was badly wounded in both legs by a shell. On his recovery he was commissioned a Brigadier-General, in September 1864, ..and almost immediately afterward was elected governor of Louisiana. He arranged to have the cotton tax to the confederate government paid in kind, and opened a route by which cotton was exported through Texas to Mexico, and medicine, clothing, and other articles introduced into the state. These necessities were sold at moderate prices and given to the poor. In the suppression of the manufacture of liquor and other similar measures Governor Allen exercised dictatorial powers. After the war he settled in Mexico and established am English paper, the "Mexican Times." See "Recollections of Henry W. Allen," by Sarah A. Dorsey (New York, 1867).
General Leroy Augustus Stafford
Leroy Stafford, who had been sheriff of Rapides Parish and was a veteran of the Mexican War, was a Cheneyville planter who had talked peace with the North instead of war. During the tense period before war finally broke out, Stafford heard there was talk in Alexandria that he was against the war because he did not have the guts to fight. The veteran bristled at such slander.
In such an atmosphere, he met one of his friends, Dr. Smith Gordon, on an Alexandria street, and the two men went to a tavern for drinks and a visit. What other subject could have been discussed but secession and war? Finally, Stafford said to the doctor, " Smith, these damned secessionists say we anti's won't fight; let's raise a company for the war and show them we will".
So "Stafford's Guards" came into being. In a matter of weeks, the company offered its services to Governor Moore. They were accepted, and with a band playing martial music, flags waving, and ladies weeping, "Stafford's Guards" left by steamer on Red River, June 4, 1861, bound for the battlefields of Virginia. The company went down the Red River, into the Mississippi, and on to New Orleans. From there they were sent a short distance away to Camp Moore in the pineywoods across Lake Pontchartrain in Tangipahoa Parish. After a month's training, the unit was mustered into the Confederate Army and designated as Company B of the Ninth Louisiana Regiment of Infantry. Richard Taylor was colonel of the regiment. (Taylor later reassigned and returned to Louisiana to play a major role in the 1863 and 1864 invasions of Red River). A month after leaving Alexandria, Stafford's guards were part of a wildly cheering Ninth Louisiana headed for Richmond, elated to at last be going where the action was. They reached Richmond the day before the first Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) and were hurried to that theater. But they were too late for action and were bitterly disappointed. There was nothing to do but wait until spring at Centerville, Va., for their chance at battle.
Stafford wrote back that measles, pneumonia, dysentery, and typhoid fever swept the winter quarters with results as disastrous as enemy bullets. Stafford was promoted to colonel, and his brigade placed in General Richard Ewell's division assigned to the Shenandoah Valley to fight with Stonewall Jackson in defending that rich breadbasket of the Confederacy. Colonel Stafford led his regiment in what is a roll call of battles in Virginia--Winchester, Port Republic, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, White Oak Swamp, Cedar Mountain, Fredericksburg, Second Manassas, and Chancellorsville.
Once the 41 year old Rapides Parish soldier was captured after a hard march at double quick time when he had stopped for breath. He was exchanged in time to lead his men through the hell of Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, where they continued their march even in the face of cannon and rifle fire sweeping their lines from the hill top. They reached the heights, and those who survived crossed Union lines. That was July 4, 1863. In October, Stafford was promoted to Brigadier General.
In May, 1864, General Stafford was fatally wounded during the Battle of the Wilderness. During the fury of the battle, a courier rushed up to inform the general that the enemy was on his flank. Stafford checked the situation himself, then ordered a change of position. He was waiting for the last man in the brigade to ride off in the changed direction when a bullet severed his spinal cord.
Messages were sent to the Secretary of War daily on the condition of General Stafford by General Robert E. Lee. Stafford, 42, died in Spottswood Hotel in Richmond, leaving a wife and nine children. His body lay in state in Richmond at the home of Senator Thomas J. Semmes of the Confederate Cabinet, and he was buried with military honors in Richmond, in Hollywood Cemetery. President Jefferson Davis attended the funeral.
His remains were moved in 1886 to "Greenwood" in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, his ancestral home, and where they remain to this day.
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis was born June 3, 1808, in that portion of Christian county, Kentucky, which was afterwards set off as Todd county. His grandfather was a colonist from Wales, living in Virginia and Maryland, and rendering important public service to those southern colonies. His father, Samuel Emory Davis, and his uncles, were all Revolutionary soldiers in 1776. Samuel Davis served during the Revolution partly with Georgia cavalry and was also in the siege of Savannah as an officer in the infantry. He is described as a young officer of gentle and engaging address, as well as remarkable daring in battle. Three brothers of Jefferson Davis, all older than himself, fought in the war of 1812, two of them serving directly with Andrew Jackson, and gaining from that great soldier special mention of their gallantry in the battle of New Orleans.
Samuel Davis, after the Revolution removed to Kentucky, resided there a few years and then changed his home to Wilkinson county, Mississippi. Jefferson Davis received his academic education in early boyhood at home, and was then sent to Transylvania university in Kentucky, where he remained until 1824, the sixteenth year of his age. During that year he was appointed by President Monroe to West Point military academy as a cadet. A class-mate at West Point said of him, "he was distinguished in his corps for manly bearing and high-toned and lofty character. His figure was very soldierlike and rather robust; his step springy, resembling the tread of an Indian 'brave' on the war-path." He was graduated June, 1828, at twenty years of age, assigned at once to the First infantry and commissioned on the same day brevet second-lieutenant and second-lieutenant. His first active service in the United States army was at posts in the North-west from 1828 to 1833. The Black-hawk war occurring in 1831, his regiment was engaged in several of its battles, in one of which the Indian chieftain, Blackhawk, was captured and placed in the charge of Lieutenant Davis; and it is stated that the heart of the Indian captive was won by the kind treatment he received from the young officer who held him prisoner. In 1833, March 4th, Lieutenant Davis was transferred to a new regiment called the First Dragoons, with promotion to the rank of first-lieutenant, and was appointed adjutant. For about two years following this promotion he had active service in various encounters with the Pawnees, Comanches and other tribes.
His sudden and surprising resignation occurred June 30, 1835, with an immediate entrance upon the duties of civil life. His uncle and other attached friends were averse to his continuance in military life, believing that he was unusually qualified to achieve distinction in a civil career. For some time he hesitated and then yielded to their wishes. Perhaps also the attractions of Miss Sallie Knox Taylor, daughter of Zachary Taylor, commanding the First infantry, to whom he became affianced, contributed to the decision. The marriage between them has been often spoken of inaccurately as an elopement, but it was solemnized at the house of the bride's aunt, near Louisville, Kentucky. Mr. Davis now became a cotton planter in Warren county at the age of twenty-seven, and while engaging successfully in this pursuit he devoted much of his time to studies that would prepare him for public life. His first appearance in political strife on a general field was in the gubernatorial canvass of 1843. He was sent as a delegate to the Democratic convention of that year and made such impressions by his speeches as to cause a demand for his services on the hustings. In 1844 his abilities were again in requisition as an elector for Polk and Dallas. In this canvass he took a firm position for strict construction, the protection of States from Federal encroachment, and incidentally advocated the annexation of Texas. The reputation which he made during this year as a statesman of the State rights school bore him into the Congress of the United States as the representative of Mississippi from his congressional district. Mr. Davis took his seat in Congress December 8, 1845, at a period when certain great questions were in issue, and with only a brief and commendable delay, took a foremost place in the discus. sions. The Oregon question, the tariff, the Texas question, were all exciting issues. It is especially noticeable in view of his after life that in these debates he evinced a devotion to the union and glory of his country in eloquent speeches, and in a consistent line of votes favorable to his country's growth in greatness. One of his earliest efforts in Congress was to convert certain forts into schools of instruction for the military of the States. His support of the "war policy," as the Texas annexation measure was sometimes designated, was ardent and unwavering, in the midst of which he was elected colonel of the First Mississippi regiment of riflemen. His decision to re-enter military life was quickly carried into effect by resignation of his place in Congress June, 1846, and the joining of his regiment at New Orleans, which he conducted to the army of General Taylor on the Rio Grande. He had succeeded in arming his regiment with percussion rifles, prepared a manual and tactics for the new arm, drilled his officers and men diligently in its use, and thus added to Taylor's force perhaps the most effective regiment in his little army. He led his well disciplined command in a gallant and successful charge at Monterey, September 21, 1846, winning a brilliant victory in the assault on Fort Teneria. For several days afterwards his regiment, united with Tennesseeans, drove the Mexicans from their redoubts with such gallantry that their leader won the admiration and confidence of the entire army. At Buena Vista the riflemen and Indiana volunteers under Davis evidently turned the course of battle into victory for the Americans by a bold charge under heavy fire against a larger body of Mexicans. It was immediately on this brilliant success that a fresh brigade of Mexican lancers advanced against the Mississippi regiment in full gallop and were repulsed by the formation of the line in the shape of the V, the flanks resting on ravines, thus exposing the lancers to a converging fire. Once more on that day the same regiment, now reduced in numbers by death and wounds, attacked and broke the Mexican right. During this last charge Colonel Davis was severely wounded, but remained on the field until the victory was won. General Taylor's dispatch of March 6, 1847, makes special complimentary mention of the courage, coolness and successful service of Colonel Davis and his command. The Mississippi regiment served out its term of enlistment, and was ordered home in July, 1847. President Polk appointed Colonel Davis brigadier-general, but he declined the commission on the ground that that appointment was unconstitutional.
In August, 1847, the governor of Mississippi appointed Mr. Jefferson Davis to the vacancy in the United States Senate caused by the death of Senator Speight, and he took his seat December 5, 1847. The legislature elected him in January for the remainder of the term, and subsequently he was re-elected for a full term. His senatorial career, beginning in December, 1847, extended over the eventful period of 1849 and 1850, in which the country was violently agitated by the questions arising on the disposition of the common territory, and into which the subject of slavery was forcibly injected. The compromise measures of 1850 proposed by Mr. Clay, and the plan of President Taylor's administration, were both designed to settle the dangerous controversy, while extreme radicals opposed all compromise and denounced every measure that favored slavery in any respect. Senator Davis advocated the division of the western territory by an extension of the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific ocean, because it had been once accepted as a settlement of the sectional question. A majority refused this mode of settlement. On this proposition to adhere to the old Missouri Compromise line of settlement the vote in the Senate was 24 yeas and 32 nays. All the yeas were cast by Southern senators. All nays were by Northern senators except Kentucky one, Missouri one and Delaware two. Mr. Davis thought that the political line of 36 deg. 30' had been at first objectionable on account of its establishing a geographical division of sectional inter-eats, and was an assumption by Congress of a function not delegated to it, but the act had received such recognition through quasi-ratifications by the people of the States as to give it a value it did not originally possess. "Pacification had been the fruit borne by the tree, and it should not have been recklessly hewn down and cast in the fire." He regarded this destruction of the Missouri Compromise line in 1849-50 by Northern votes in Congress as dangerous to the peace of the country. In his opinion at that time the theory of popular sovereignty in the territories "was good enough in itself, and as an abstract proposition could not be gainsaid," but its practical operation, he feared, would introduce fierce territorial strife. He now. saw very little in the compromise legislation of 1850 favorable to the Southern States. According to his view it "bore the impress of that sectional spirit so widely at variance with the general purposes of the Union and destructive of the harmony and mutual benefit which the Constitution was intended to secure." He did not believe the Northern States would respect any of its provisions which conflicted with their views and interests. His attitude, however, toward the measures of Mr. Clay was not positively hostile, though it was emphatically distrustful. But during the perilous discussions of those times Mr. Davis did not align himself with any disunionists North or South. He says for himself, "My devotion to the Union of our fathers had been so often and so publicly declared; I had on the floor of the Senate so defiantly challenged any question of my fidelity to it; my services, civil and military, had now extended through so long a period and were so generally known, that I felt quite assured that no whisperings of envy or ill-will could lead the people of Mississippi to believe that I had dishonored their trust by using the power they had conferred on me to destroy the government to which I was accredited. Then, as afterward, I regarded the separation of the States as a great, though not the greater evil." The votes and speeches of Mr. Davis accorded with the instruction of the Mississippi legislature, and his public record is entirely consistent with this avowal of his devotion to the whole country and his patriotic desire to preserve it from the evils of fanaticism. Reference to this Union sentiment is not made in this sketch or elsewhere in this general work as apologetic in its bearings. But it is in rebuke of those careless or vicious statements often made against Mr. Davis and other Confederate leaders that they were for many years engaged in a conspiracy to break up the Union.
Senator Davis entered upon his new and full term as senator from Mississippi March 4, 1851, from which date there were before him six years of honor in the position he preferred to all others. There was a strong probability also that if living he would be continued in the Senate, since the Southern States were accustomed to the retaining of their eminent men in office. No man had less reason than himself for conspiracy against the government. With this advantage and under the influence of strongly conservative feeling he canvassed the State of Mississippi in 1851, bravely advocating the policy of determined resistance to sectional aggressions, and insisting that the country should be defended from the perils of Congressional usurpation. His argument was that reverence for the constitutional reservations of power would alone save the Union, and upon this view he taught that statesmen who revered the Constitution most, loved the Union best. The overwhelming sentiment of Mississippi that year was to accept the compromise measures of 1850 as a finality, and consequently the State rights party which had been organized upon a vague platform proposing to devise some undefined method of securing guarantees against sectional usurpations, was defeated. Mississippi accordingly joined the other Southern States in acquiescence with the settlement of 1850 "as a finality."
The election for governor of the State was to occur later in the same year. Governor Quitman had been nominated for re-election, but his political antecedents so decidedly committed him to disunion as to imperil his success. Therefore he withdrew from the nomination, and Senator Davis was called on by the executive committee to take his place, because his conservative record accorded more nearly than Governor Quitman's with the recent ballot of the people. It was only six weeks to the day of the election, the State rights party had been lately beaten by a majority of over 7,000 votes, Davis was at that time too sick to leave home, and acceptance of the nomination required his resignation of the high office he then held secure for nearly six years. Nevertheless he accepted the trust, resigned the senatorial office and was defeated by less than one thousand votes. Mr. Davis retired for a short time to private life, from which he was called by President Pierce, who had been elected to the presidency in 1852. At first the tender of a place in the cabinet of the new President was declined, but on further consideration he accepted the office of secretary of war. Mr. Davis had ably supported Pierce in the race of the previous year upon the platform which emphasized beyond all else the finality of the compromise measures, and the cessation of sectional hostilities. He was therefore in this as in other respects in complete agreement with the President from the beginning to the closing of his administration The duties of the war office were discharged with characteristic energy and ability, and at its close his portrait was added to others of eminent men who had enjoyed the same distinction, and it remains suspended in its proper position to this day. A few years later the friendly and confiding letter of the President to Mr. Davis expressed his painful apprehension concerning the Southern movement for secession, accompanied with the kindest expressions of regard for his former able associate in the executive department of government.
Mr. Davis went now from the cabinet of President Pierce, March 4, 1857, to re-enter the United States Senate by the election of the legislature of Mississippi. He was there assigned to the chairmanship of the committee on military affairs, opposed the French spoliation measures, advocated the Southern Pacific railroad bill, and antagonized Senator Douglas on the question of popular or "squatter" sovereignty in the territories, while on the other hand he disputed the claim set up by the Free-soilers of power in Congress to legislate against those territorial domestic institutions which were not in conflict with the Constitution. During the Kansas troubles he aligned himself with those who endeavored to prevent the dangerous hostilities which the opening of that section to occupation had produced, and when the settlement of 1858 was made by the passage of the conference Kansas-Nebraska bill, he wrote hopefully to the people of Mississippi that it was "the triumph of all for which he had contended." At that moment he believed that the danger of sectional discord was over, that peace would reign, and the Union be saved through the policy pursued by the Buchanan administration. From this date, 1859, he was nationally acknowledged as a statesman in counsel, a leader of the people, ranking among the most eminent living Americans.
With this standing among the counselors of the government, Senator Davis endeavored in the beginning of 1860 to lay the foundation for a policy which would prevent sectional agitation and unite inseparably all the States in friendly union. This policy was defined in a series of seven resolutions introduced by him in the Senate February 2, 1860, which were debated three months and adopted in May by a majority of that body as the sense of the Senate of the United States upon the relation of the general government to the States and territories. They were opposed en masse by senators who were allied with the new sectional policy upon which the presidential campaign of that year was projected. In the great conflict of that year he was mentioned extensively as a statesman suitable for the presidency, but it was fully announced that he did not desire the nomination. Regretting the breach which occurred at Charleston in his party, he sought to reconcile the factions, and failing in that, endeavored to gain the consent of Douglas and Breckinridge to withdraw their names in order that union might be secured upon some third person. On the election of Mr. Lincoln he sought with others who were alarmed by the situation some remedy other than that of immediate and separate State secession. He was appointed a member of the Senate committee of Thirteen and was willing to accept the Crittenden resolutions as a compromise if they could have the sincere support of Northern senators. His speeches in the Senate were distinguished for their frankness in portraying the dangers of sectionalism, but through the debates of that session he was careful to utter no words which could produce irritation. Mr. Stephens says that Mr. Davis indicated no desire to break up the Union. Mr. Clay, of Alabama, said, "Mr. Davis did not take an active part in planning or hastening secession. I think he only regretfully consented to it as a political necessity for the preservation of popular and State rights which were seriously threatened by the triumph of a sectional party who were pledged to make war upon them. I know that some leading men and even Mississippians thought him too moderate and backward, and found fault with him for not taking a leading part in secession." Mr. Buchanan sent for him on account of his known conservatism to secure his advice as to the safe course which the administration should pursue, and he promptly complied with the summons. Another fact bearing forcibly on his position while the States were preparing to secede is the meeting of Mississippi congressional. delegation at Jackson, called together by the governor, in which the course of their State was the subject of conference. "Mr. Davis with only one other in that conference opposed immediate and separate State action, declaring himself opposed to secession as long as the hope of a peaceable remedy remained." After the majority decided on separate State secession Mr. Davis declared he would stand by whatever action the Mississippi convention would take, but several members in that conference were dissatisfied with his course, suspecting that he was at heart against secession, and desired delay in order to prevent it. The State convention adopted the ordinance of secession January 9, 1861, and immediately after receiving the official notice Mr. Davis made an exquisitely appropriate and pathetic address to the Senate, taking leave of it in compliance with the action of his State, which he fully justified. "I do think," said he," she has justifiable cause, and I approve of her act. I conferred with her people before that act was taken, counselled them that if the 'state of things which they apprehended should exist when their convention met, they should take the action which they have now adopted." "I find in myself perhaps a type of the general feeling of my constituents toward yours. I am sure I feel no hostility toward you, Senators of the North. I am sure there is not one of you, whatever sharp discussion there may have been between us, to whom I cannot say in the presence of my God, I wish you well, and such I am sure is the feeling of the people whom I represent toward those whom you represent. I carry with me no hostile remembrance. Whatever offense I have given which has not been redressed or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, Senators, in this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any pain which in the heat of discussion I have inflicted. I go hence unincumbered by the remembrance of any injury received, and having discharged the duty of making the only reparation in my power for any injury offered, Mr. President and Senators, having made the announcement which the occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains for me to bid you a final adieu." With these fitly spoken words, uttered with the grace of manner for which the accomplished orator was distinguished, and with a tenderness in tone produced by the occasion, the Senator vacated the seat which he had honored and stepped away from a position of commanding dignity and power sufficient to gratify his ambition. It must be seen that the sacrifice was great. Before him the experiment of secession to be tried, according to his expressed belief, alone by bloody war--around him, as his parting words fell from his lips, the associations of a nobly patriotic life rise up and engage his thought--within him a consciousness of rectitude in present motive, and magnanimity in feeling; while a record ineffaceable by any power attested the fidelity of his past life to the general welfare of his country. The change of all conditions became peculiarly and specially great as to him, because even contrary to his wishes he was destined to become the head and front of the secession movement. His virtues would be forgotten and his name maligned through the spite and prejudice not only of the ignorant masses, but of prominent men of warped intelligence.
He is to be fairly viewed after secession as the same man who had justly earned fame in the service of the United States, but whose relations to that country were changed by the act of the State to which he owed allegiance. Surveying him at this crisis in his life we take account of his hereditary virtues, his pride of patriotic ancestry, his training in the Southern school of thought, feeling and manner, his systematic education to graduation from West Point academy, his associations from childhood to manhood with men of culture and women of refinement. We observe his physical advan-tages--a fine figure, erect and strong--in bearing, graceful when moving and pleasing in repose; his features clearly classic and betokening firmness, fearlessness and intelligence. Far he was from any hauteur of bearing, and free from the supposed superciliousness of the misunderstood Southern aristocracy. We see his mind cultivated and fruitful by reason of native power, early education, extensive reading and long communion with great thoughts on affairs of vast importance. He had self command, gained by the discipline of a soldier, which fitted him to command others; certainly also a strong willed nature to that degree where his maturely considered opinion was not lightly deserted, nor his .well-formed purpose easily abandoned. He was not the man to desert a cause which he once espoused. He was liable to err by excess of devotion. Such men make mistakes, and the Confederate President was not exempt. The insight of his general character reveals him a conservative patriot, opposing all tendencies to anarchy or monarchy, faithful to constitutional agreements and supporter of popular liberties; in his public and private life above reproach; in religion a devout believer in the Christian faith and living in the communion of his church. Such is the man who had vacated his place as senator from the State of Mississippi.
Mississippi elected him at once to the command of her State forces, a position he desired, but a few weeks later he was called by election to the Presidency of the Confederacy--a responsibility which he had earnestly shunned.
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America and commander-in-chief of the army and navy, belongs to history, and his career is subject to full and fair treatment by just and intelligent men. The failure of his government to establish itself in permanency by the power of its armies will not be accepted as evidence against his own right to be reverenced, except by such persons as those who regard the triumphs of superior over inferior force as decisive of merit. Such persons judge men and their causes by an exploded savage theory which subjected the weak to the strong. The feudal system, Russian serfdom, and African slavery in the beginning of the horrible slave trade, rested on this basis. Men divested of that prejudice which constricts the reason will not decry the President of the Confederacy because it failed. Not the Southern people alone, but intelligent men of the finer mould of thought and feeling among all nations, are gratified by the cessation of the vituperous language of twenty-five years ago, with which even men of eminence as well as the lower sort declaimed against the exalted man who in public service for a like period of twenty-five years, filling positions in war and peace of great public trust, did not in the least degree betray the confidence which his people had reposed in him. That his career is open to adverse criticism will be conceded by his most reverent friends; but that his name, now that he is dead, should be made to wear the chains which generous justice broke from about his imprisoned living body, will not be claimed by the present generation of fairminded Americans. It is reported that Mr. Gladstone said in 1861 of Jefferson Davis that he had "created a nation," while at the same time it was being urged upon England that he was attempting to take a nation's life. Neither statement was exactly true. Mr. Davis had not created a nation. He was but the executive head of a republic which the intelligent free people of a number of large and powerful States had created. Nor had he attempted the destruction of the United States, for that government remained the same living political organism after secession that it was before. The great English statesman was not a sympathizer with the Southern secession, but he saw with clear vision that a nation in fact had come into being whose greatness was reflected in the character of the ruler it had chosen. His administration was not restrained by his antipathies. With the true greatness of his own nature he could esteem the virtues which were conspicuous in the character of such a chieftain of such a people. Jefferson Davis and the people of the Confederacy being inseperable in the reflections of mankind, the South asks only that he and they shall be judged by honorable men who have the capacities of reason and gentility to render a just judgment.
His administration of the government of the Confederate States must be viewed, as Mr. Stephens justly remarks, in the light of the extraordinary difficulties which had to be suddenly encountered by a new republic which was attacked at all points in the beginning of its formation. The errors of the administration are not so clearly observable as its wisdom. Possibly certain policies ably proposed by patriotic and capable advocates, but not adopted, might have been more efficacious than others which were pursued. It is conjecture only that a different policy would have gained the Southern cause. Possibly the offensive policy which was urged upon the Confederate President in the first months' fighting might have been better than the defensive which he was constrained to adopt. The financial system was not the best and yet some of its features were adopted or followed by the United States. Conscription was a hard measure, and perhaps the appeal for volunteers would have kept the army full. There were on these and other great problems differences of opinion, but there was rare unity in the Confederate purpose to succeed, and hence the government was maintained against forces of men, money and diplomacy leagued against it in such strength as to force the conclusion that after all the Confederate government was wonderfully well sustained for the four or more years of its existence. Nearly all the great reviewers of the Confederate civil administration and the operations of its armies agree in the verdict that both departments were well sustained by the intelligent and brave leaders at the head of affairs. The administration policy incurred special opposition at all the points above named, in regard to which President Davis in his writings concedes the fidelity and intelligence of his opposers, even admitting that in some instances his policy should have been changed. The difficult and delicate situations in which he was placed by the progress of military events often embarrassed him. His appointments were not always the best that could have been made, and his military suggestions were sometimes faulty because they were given at a distance from the field. But the constantly diminishing resources of his country, through the destructive agencies that eroded them at every point, caused the collapse of the government. President Davis did not publicly disclose any apprehensions of failure even to the last days of the Confederacy. So far as the antagonists of his government could determine from his open policy he had no thought of peace except in independence. But it is apparent from his actions in the winter of 1864 and 1865, especially after his interview with Lee and other officers, that he began to look about him for the way to peace. The commission sent to Canada to meet any parties from the United States who would counsel peace; his readiness to give audience to even such unauthorized but friendly visitors as Colonel Jacques; his two interviews with Blair and his letter to Blair to be shown to Lincoln; his appointment of Stephens, Campbell and Hunter to meet President Lincoln in an informal conference--all these indicated at the time and now more clearly disclose that the Confederate President would have consented to peace upon terms that would even subvert his presidency and consign him to private life. The defeat and surrender of the armies of Lee and Johnston dissolved the Confederate States in fact leaving nothing to be done in law but the abrogation of the ordinances of secession by the States which had erected them. As one result of the fall of the armies the President was made a captive by the military, imprisoned in chains, charged unjustly with crimes for which he demanded trial in vain, and after two years of imprisonment which disgraced his enemies was released on bond. A nolle prosequi was entered in his case in 1869, and thus he was never brought to the trial which he earnestly demanded.
After this release on bail the ex-President enjoyed an enthusiastic reception at Richmond, Virginia, and then visited Europe. Returning home, he avoided ostentatious display, appearing before the public, however, in occasional address and writings. He counseled the South to recover its wasted resources and maintain its principles. Secession he frankly admitted to be no more possible, but he remained to the last an unyielding opposer of power centralized in the Federal government. Now and then public demonstrations revealed the attachment of the Southern people, especially two occasions in Georgia, one being the unveiling of the Ben Hill statue in Atlanta, and the other an occasion in Macon, Ga., during the State agricultural fair. These popular demonstrations were of such an imposing character as to evidence the undiminished attachment of the people to his personal character, and sympathy for him in his misfortunes.
The death of the President occurred at New Orleans about one o'clock a.m., December 5, 1889, and the event was announced throughout the Union. The funeral ceremonies in New Orleans were such as comported with the illustrious character of the deceased chieftain, while public meetings in other cities and towns of the South were held to express the common sorrow, and the flags of State capitols were dropped to half-mast. Distinguished men pronounced eulogies on his character, and the press universally at the South and generally at the North contained extended and laudatory articles on his character.
The burial place in New Orleans was selected only as a temporary receptacle, while a general movement was inaugurated for a tomb and monument which resulted in the removal of the body to Richmond, the capitol of the Confederacy. The removal took place by means of a special funeral train from New Orleans to Richmond, passing through several States and stopping at many places to receive the respectful and affectionate tributes bestowed by the people. The scene from the time of the departure from New Orleans to the last rites at Richmond was singular in its nature and sublime in its significance of popular esteem for the memory of the Confederate President. The funeral train moved day and night almost literally in review before the line of people assembled to see it pass. Finally in the presence of many thousands the casket was deposited in the last resting place in the keeping of the city which had so long withstood the rude alarms of war under his presidency.
Brigadier General Jean Jacques Alfred Alexandre Mouton
Alfred Mouton, the namesake of our camp, was born on February 18, 1829 in Opelousas. He was the son of Alexandre Mouton, former Governor of Louisiana and the president of the Secession Convention in 1861. Alfred was educated at St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, between Opelousas and Lafayette, and went onto West Point and graduated with the class of 1850. He served briefly in the US Army and resigned to take up a career in civil engineering with a railroad firm. He was also a sugar cane planter in Lafayette Parish. He became very active in the Louisiana Militia where he obtained the rank of brigadier general. In 1861, at the outbreak of the War for Southern Independence, Alfred accepted the rank of captain in the Confederate Army. He quicly rose to the rank of colonel and became commander of the 18th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. This unit was made up of companies formed all around Acadiana.
Alfred was wounded while serving with the 18th at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee in April, 1862. Upon recovering, he returned to service with the rank of brigadier general and served with Gen. Richard Taylor's Army in the LaFourche, Teche and Red River Campaigns in Louisiana.
The brave "Acadian General" was killed while leading a charge at the Battle of Mansfield, Lousisiana on April 8, 1864. This battle would be the largest Confederate victory west of the Mississippi River. Originally buried on the field, his body was reinterred on April 24, 1867 in the cemetery at St. John's Cathedral in Lafayette, Louisiana. In 2000, the Alfred Mouton Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy hosted a dedication for an obelisk erected in honor of Gen. Mouton at his gravesite.
Franklin Sharpshooters
Co E 8th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry
The 8th Infantry Regiment completed its organization at Camp Moore, Louisiana, in June, 1861. Its members were from the parishes of East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Bienville, St. Martin, St. Mary, St. Landry, Webster, Rapides, and Plaquemines. Sent to Virginia, six companies (508 men) were held in reserve during the Battle of First Manassas, then the regiment moved to Winchester. During the war it was brigaded under Generals R. Taylor, Hays, and York. It fought in Jackson's Valley Campaign and on many battlefields of the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days' Battles to Cold Harbor. The 8th went on to participate in Early's operations in the Shenandoah Valley, then shared in various conflicts around Appomattox. It reported 9 killed and 37 wounded at Cross Keys and Port Republic, had 15 killed and 69 wounded during the Seven Days' Battles, and sustaining 91 casualties in the Maryland Campaign. The unit lost 12 killed and 71 wounded at Chancellorsville and twenty-five percent of the 296 engaged at Gettysburg. It had 162 captured at Rappahannock Station. Only 3 officers and 54 men surrendered. Its commanders were Colonels Alcibiades DeBlanc, Henry B. Kelly, and Trevanion D. Lewis; Lieutenant Colonels Germain A. Lester and Francis T. Nicholls; and Major John B. Prados.
Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor
Richard Taylor (1826-1879) A Confederate General with no formal military training, Taylor served with distinction and in 1865 surrendered the last organized Confederate forces east of the Mississippi. Born in Kentucky, the son of President Zachary Taylor, Richard studied at Harvard, Edinburgh, and Yale, before becoming a Louisiana sugar planter. Elected colonel of the Ninth Louisiana Infantry at the war’s outset, he and his regiment reached Virginia too late for the First Battle of Manassas.
Taylor was a brother-in-law of President Jefferson Davis, and rumor had it that in the fall of 1861 he was offered the post of quartermaster general of the Confederate army. If so, he declined it, but from time to time throughout the war he continued to be the beneficiary of Davis’s favoritism. In October he was promoted to brigadier general and given command of a Louisiana brigade that became part of Richard S. Ewell’s division. Taylor served with distinction in the Shenandoah Valley campaign during the spring of 1862 but was kept out of the Seven Days Battle by rheumatiod arthritis Recovering within a few weeks, he was promoted to major general and was assigned to command of the District of Western' Louisiana in August 1862.
Although dreaming of retaking New Orleans, he generally found himself falling back before Federal forays such as Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks’s April 1863 Bayou Teche expedition. At the urging of Trans Mississippi commander E. Kirby Smith, who was himself under pressure from Richmond, Taylor moved against Ulysses S. Grant’s supply lines on the west bank of the Mississippi opposite Vicksburg. The attempt was a failure and Grant’s campaign culminated in the capture of that key Confederate stronghold. Taylor was forced to fall back before Banks’s Red River expedition in the spring of 1864 but defeated Banks at the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, south of Shreveport, or April 8, 1864. Outnumbered twelve thousand to nine thousand in troops engaged, Taylor inflicted double his own casualties and captured twenty cannons and two hundred supply wagons. Although the battle the next day at Pleasant Hill was a tactical victory he was ordered by Smith to fall back temporarily or Shreveport, he had succeeded in forcing the withdrawal o: Banks’s ill-fated expedition. Rewarded with a promotion to lieutenant general, Taylor was nevertheless bitter toward Smith, blaming him for Banks’s escape.
He thus welcomed orders to take his troop! across the Mississippi for service in the East. Finding the river too heavily patrolled by the U.S. Navy, he had to remain in the Trans-Mississippi until August 22, 1864 when he was ordered to go east personally to take command of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and Eastern Louisiana. On January 23, 1865, Taylor was named as successor to John Bell Hood as commander of the remnants of the Army of Tennessee, which Hood had wrecked at Franklin. and Nashville. As such, Taylor’s prime role was shipping his units off to the Carolinas to oppose William Tecumseh Sherman. On May 4, 1865, he surrendered to Gen Canby at Citronelle, Al.
After the war, Taylor was active Democratic party politics in Louisiana, opposing reconstruction. In 1879, the year of his death, he published his reminiscences of the war, Destruction and Reconstruction, considered one of the best memoirs of the war. He is buried in Metaire Cemetery in Louisiana.
Capt. James W. Bryan
Bryan, James W., Capt. Co. I. 28th La. Infty. (Thomas'). En. April 15th, 1862. New Orleans, La. Present on Rolls to Sept., 1862. Rolls from Oct., 1862, to Feb., 1863, Present. Acting Major. Federal Rolls of Prisoners of War. Captured and paroled at Vicksburg. Miss., July 4th, 1863. On Official Rolls of Paroled Officers Bryan. J. W., Capt. 28th La. Vols. Co. I., Paroled at Houston, Tex., June 27th, 1865.
Capt. Thomas O. Benton
Benton, Thos. C., Capt. 3rd La. Battery Light Arty. Official Rolls of Paroled Officers Paroled Natchitoches, La., June 6th, 1865.3rd Battery Volunteer Artillery (Bell Battery, Benton's)
From Bergeron, La. Confed. Units, 21-22:
"This battery was organized at Monroe in April or May, 1862. The battery bore the nickname "Bell Battery" because the cannons originally intended for it had been cast from bells donated by planters in Ouachita, Caldwell, and Morehouse parishes. Those guns, cast in Vicksburg, Mississippi, never reached the battery; and Captain [Thomas O.] Benton finally obtained four cannons from General Braxton Bragg at Cornith, Mississippi. After training at Monroe, the battery received orders to move to the Mississippi River and interfere with enemy shipping in East Carroll and Madison parishes. in early 1863, the battery moved to Harrisonburg and became part of gthe garrison of Fort Taylor and later of Fort Beauregard. The men fought Federal gunboats at the latter fort on May 10 and 11 and helped drive the enemy back. When Federal land and naval forces caused an evacuation of Fort Beauregard on September 4, the battery fell back to Alexandria. From there, it moved to Bayou DeGlaize near Marksville. The Federal advance up the Red River in March, 1864, forced a retreat toward Shreveport with the rest of the Confederate army. At the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, April 8-9, the men remained in reserve and did not engage the enemy. On April 26, Captain Benton and his two rifled guns fired on two enemy gunboats on the Red River at Deloach's Bluff and drove them away. The battery participated in a skirmish south of Alexandra at Chambers' Plantation, May 5. The next day, in a skirmish at Polk's Bridge over Bayou Lamourie, three of the battery's four guns became disabled; and the battery saw no further action during the campaign. In the fall and winter of 1864, the battery accompanied General Camille J. Polignac's division on a march into Arkansas. By January, 1865, the battery had returned to Louisiana and established a camp near Collinsburg in Bossier Parish. From there, the men moved to Shreveport. Placing their guns in storage, they reported to Grand Ecore to take over some of the heavy artillery batteries there. The men surrendered at Grand Ecore in June, 1865. Some 108 men served in the battery during the war."
Russell, Samuel D., 1st Lt., Lt. Col., Co. D, Field and Staff, 3rd La. Inf. En. May 17, 1861,New Orleans, La. Present on all Rolls to Dec., 1861. Rolls May, 1862. to Aug., 1862, Absent ondetached service as Recruiting Officer, Spec. Order 113, from Hdqrs. Army of the West, June 13,1862. Apptd. Major, May 10, 1862. Elected at reorganization. Rolls Oct., 1862, to Feb., 1863.Absent, wounded at Battle of Corinth, Oct. 4, 1862. On furlough. Official Rolls Paroled Officers, C. S. A., Paroled Natchitoches, La., June 10, 1865, as Colonel, 3rd La. Inf.
3rd Infantry Regiment was assembled during the spring of 1861 with men from Iberville, Morehouse, Winn, De Soto, Caddo, and Caldwell parishes. The unit fought at Wilson's Creek and Elkhorn Tavern, then moved to Mississippi where it was active in the conflicts at Iuka and Corinth. Later it was assigned to L. Hebert's Brigade in the Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana and was captured in the fight at Vicksburg. After being exchanged, the regiment served in A. Thomas' Brigade, Trans-Mississippi Department. It contained 271 officers and men in March, 1862, lost forty percent of the 264 at Iuka, and totalled 38 effectives in December, 1863. Early in 1865 the 3rd disbanded. The field officers were Colonels Frank C. Armstrong, Jerome B. Gilmore, Louis Hebert, and Samuel D. Russell; Lieutenant Colonels O.P. Amacker, Samuel M. Hyams, and David Pierson; and Majors John S. Richards and William F. Tunnard.
Maj. Thomas McGuire
Major Thomas M’Guire Major M’Guire was born on August 26, 1832 at Cahawba Valley, Jefferson County, Alabama. His family moved to Talladega, Alabama where he grew up. At the age of 17 he was on the move by covered wagon to Arcadia, Louisiana. Thomas assisted the family in farming before going out on his own clerking, first in Arcadia and Vienna, Louisiana. He moved to Trenton (the precursor of West Monroe) in 1856 working as a clerk at “Oliver and Drake”. Eventually the Major would become a partner and finally control the business. When the war came, he joined the “Arcadian Invincibles” and was elected sergeant. The “invincibles” soon became Company B of the12th Louisiana Regiment, organizing at camp Moore, Louisiana. The regiment went to Columbus, Kentucky and participated in the fortification of that place and soon after the battle of Belmont. Thomas M’Guire was soon promoted to captain and then Major. He acted as both brigade and Division Quartermaster. The 12th served at Fort Pillow, Corinth, Jackson and Vicksburg. For a while, the regiment was at Port Hudson, where M’Guire was the post quartermaster. The 12th became a part of the Army of Tennessee and fought in the battles of that army until surrendered at Ashville. After the war, Major M’Guire returned to Trenton and rebuilt his business buying, warehousing, and selling cotton. Initially the business did well but when cotton dropped to 5cents a pound in 1878-79, he was forced out of the cotton business. He first rented and then bought the Hasley plantation. He renamed the plantation, “Travelers Rest”, and the major’s reputation as generous and gracious to travelers on the old Arkansas Road became absolutely legendary. The Major’s concern for his fellow southerners caused him to become a devotee of “diversification”. His plantation became what we would call today an experiment station, where the major tried out agricultural “diversification.” This, he hoped would wean North Louisiana off the “one crop system” which he viewed as the cause of poverty, false prosperity and general economic disaster. Major M’Guire’s forward thinking set him apart and he continued with his efforts at “Traveler’s Rest” until virtually the day he died in 1918 at the age of 86.
Lt. Col. WILLIAM WALKER
This soldier was the second sheriff of Winn Parish, LA, and appears on the 1860 Winn Parish Census, Winnfield District No. 20, age 28, born AL, living in the home of Dr.Q. A. Hargis, which might have served as a hotel or rooming house. Walker is listed as owning personal property worth $ 8,000.
Walker was a Mason, affilliating with Eastern Star Masonic Lodge, Winnfield, LA in 1858, serving as the Lodge's first Worshipful Master. He served as District Deputy Grand Master and there is evidence of him attending Lodge at Montgomery, LA as his name appears as a visitor.
It is known that Walker was married to Roseanne or Rosanna McCreight (pronounced McWright), and they possibly had one son and probably one daughter. Mrs. Walker is buried at McDonald Cemetery, behind McDonald Cemetery, Rochester, Jackson Parish, LA. Rochester is just south or west of Jonesboro, LA on LA Highway 4, not too far from Gansville, Winn Parish, LA. Rosanne McCreight Walker's gravemarker shows that she was born 6-22-184?, died 8-8-1891. There is one grave-sized space between Mrs. Walker and a female who appears to have been the Colonel and Mrs. Walker's daughter, which could possibly the burial place of Col. Walker. According to John House, Mansfield Battlefield Site Manager, Col. Walker, who was killed at the Battle of Mansfield, was buried initially at the old Mansfield City Cemetery, but his body was disinterred within a few days, and removed by family members to another burial site. This would add to the possibility that the Colonel is buried beside his wife at McDonald Cemetery, Rochester, Jackson Parish, LA. Several sources refer to Lt. Col. Walker's gallant death on the battlefield at Mansfield.
Page 564, Official Records of the war, report of General Richard Taylor, states "in this charge, General Mouton fell.....Lt. Col. Walker, commanding the 28th LA...........were killed". The Guide to Louisiana Confederate Military Units, page 138, states "Lt. Col. William Walker, killed 4-8-1864." John D. Winters' Civil War in Louisiana, page 342, states "shortly after 4:00 o'clock (Taylor) ordered Mouton to open the attack". The Journal of the American Civil War, Vol. 4, # 2, page 6, states "a native of Alabama, Walker was born in 1832 and later moved to what became Winn Parish. The infantry company he raised after the war began became part of the LA. 28th." The report of Col. Henry Gray states "Lt. Col. William Walker, of the 28th LA Regiment fell early in the action while gallantly leading his regiment in the charge." A United Daughters of the Confederacy Chapter was formed in Winn Parish, LA around 1910, and was named in honor of Lt. Col. Walker. This Chapter somehow was given the Colonel's sword, but it is unknown today where it might be.
"Jacksons Volunteers."28th La Infantry Co F
Robert H. Bradford, Capt.
Madison H. Hearn, 1st Lt., died Sept. 11, 1862
William S. Robinson, 1st Lt.
George McD. [Tippen], 2nd Lt., Desserted June 22, 1862
Thomas Terrel Key, 2nd Lt., r. Feb. 28th, 1863
William R. Womack, 2nd Lt.
William B. Everett, 2nd Lt.
General P. G. T. Beauregard
The services of "The Hero of Fort Sumter," Pierre G.T. Beauregard, were not utilized to their fullest due to bad blood between the Confederate general and Jefferson Davis. The native Louisianan had graduated second in the 1838 class at West Point. There he had become a great admirer of Napoleon and was nicknamed "The Little Napoleon." Posted to the artillery, he was transferred to the engineers a week later. As a staff officer with Winfield Scott in Mexico he won two brevets and was wounded at both Churubusco and Chapultepec. In the interwar years he was engaged in clearing the Mississippi River of obstructions. In 1861 he served the shortest term ever-January 23-28 as superintendent at West Point. Southern leanings probably resulted in his prompt removal. On February 20, 1861, he resigned his captaincy in the engineers and offered his services to the South.
His Confederate assignments included: brigadier general, CSA (March 1, 1861); commanding Charleston Harbor (March 3 - May 27, 1861); commanding Alexandria Line June 2-20, 1861); commanding Army of the Potomac June 20 - July 20, 1861); commanding Ist Corps, Army of the Potomac July 20 - October 22, 1861); general, CSA (August 31, 1861 to rank from July 21); commanding Potomac District, Department of Northern Virginia (October 22, 1861 - January 29, 1862); commanding Army of the Mississippi (March 17-29 and April 6 - May 7, 1862); second in command, Army of the Mississippi and Department Y2 (March 29-April 6, 1862); commanding the department (April 6 - June 17, 1862); commanding Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (August 29, 1862 - April 20, 1864); commanding Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia (April 22-ca. September 23, 1864); commanding Military Division of the West (October 17, 1864-March 16, 1865); and second in command, Army of Tennessee (March 16-April 26, 1865).
Placed in charge of the South Carolina troops in Charleston Harbor, he won the nearly bloodless victory at Fort Sumter. "The Little Creole" was hailed throughout the South. Ordered to Virginia, he commanded the forces opposite Washington and created the Confederate Army of the Potomac. Reinforced by Joseph E. Johnston and his Army of the Shenandoah, Beauregard was reduced to corps command under Johnston the day before 1st Bull Run. However, during the battle Beauregard, being familiar with the field, exercised tactical command while Johnston forwarded troops to the threatened left. Both officers later claimed that they could have taken the Union capital if they had been properly supplied with rations for their men. This was one of Beauregard's first conflicts with Davis. Nonetheless he was named a full general from the date of the battle and early in 1862 was sent to the West as Albert Sidney Johnston's second in command.
Utilizing Napoleonic style, he drafted the attack orders for Shiloh and took command when Johnston was mortally wounded on the first day of the battle. On the evening of the first day he let victory slip through his fingers by calling off the attacks. Controversy over his decision has raged to this day. The next day he was driven from the field by Grant's and Buell's combined armies. He was eventually forced to evacuate Corinth, Mississippi-his supply base in the face of Henry W. Halleck's overwhelming force. Shortly after that he went on sick leave without gaining Davis' permission; he was permanently relieved of his army and departmental commands on June 27, 1862, by special direction of the president.
Two months later he returned to the scene of his earlier triumph as commander along the Southern coast from the North Carolina-South Carolina line to the tip of Florida. He held this command for over a year and a half and was engaged in the determined defense of Charleston against naval and ground forces. Ordered north, he took command in North Carolina and southern Virginia while Lee faced Grant in northern Virginia. Gradually the two forces were pushed together in an awkward command arrangement.
Beauregard managed to bottle up Benjamin F. Butler in the Bermuda Hundred lines after defeating him at Drewry's Bluff. This was Beauregard's finest performance of the war. At this point he started making grandiose proposals for defeating both Butler and Grant and invading the North by taking a large part of Lee's army with him. This resulted in lengthy correspondence between the two commanders and the Richmond authorities. Beauregard also managed to thwart the early Union attempts to take Petersburg while Lee was still north of the James River. With the siege of the city under way, he continued to serve under Lee until September 1864 when he was assigned to overall command in the West with John B. Hood's Army of Tennessee and Richard Taylor's Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana under him. With no forces under his immediate command he was powerless in trying to stop Sherman's March to the Sea.
In the final days of the war he was again second in command to Joseph E. Johnston, this time in North Carolina. Following the capitulation he returned to New Orleans and refused high rank in the Egyptian and Rumanian armies. Engaged in railroading, his reputation was tarnished by his association with the Louisiana Lottery as a supervisor. For a time he was Louisiana's adjutant general, and he engaged in historical writing including his A Commentary on the Campaign and Battle of Manassas.
Randall Lee Gibson
Randall Lee GIBSON a Representative and a Senator from Louisiana; born September 10, 1832, at Spring Hill, near Versailles, Woodford County, Ky.; was educated by a private tutor at ‘Live Oak,’ his father’s plantation in Terrebonne Parish, La.; graduated from Yale College in 1853 and from the law department of the University of Louisiana (later Tulane University), New Orleans, La., in 1855; traveled in Europe for several years; engaged in planting until the outbreak of the Civil War; enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861 and served until 1864, when he was promoted to brigadier general; after the war was admitted to the bar and practiced in New Orleans, La.; resumed agricultural pursuits; served as administrator of the Howard Memorial Library, trustee of the Peabody Fund, Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, and as president of the board of administrators of Tulane University, New Orleans, La.; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1872 to the Forty-third Congress; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1883); elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1882; reelected in 1889 and served from March 4, 1883, until his death at Hot Springs, Ark., December 15, 1892; interment Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Ky.
Claiborne Invincibles
Claiborne Invincibles: Co K 17th La Inf. Captains, W.A. Mattox and Gabriel M Kilgore. Entered at Camp Moore Sept 8, 1862. Fought at the Battle of Shiloh April 6&7 1862. Where a part of the Siege of Vicksburg and were surrendered July 4, 1863.In January 1864 the men reformed at went to Pineville and Joined Gen Allen Thomas' Brigade.Disbanded in Mansfield on May 19 1865.
Claiborne Invinvibles: Co D 28th La Inf. V Captain Marcus O Cheatham. The men were a part of Gen Richard Taylor's Army of Trans-Mississippi. They fought in many battles within Louisiana such as Miliken's Bend and Irish Bayou. They helped lead the charge at the Battle of Mansfield that routed the yankee invaders.
CAMP MOORE
Camp Moore, named for Louisiana Governor Thomas Overton Moore, was located about 78 miles north of New Orleans on the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad ( currently the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad) about one half mile north of Tangiphoa Station, La. The vast majority of the volunteer regiments and battalions which brought fame and honor to the State of Louisiana during the War for Southern Independence were assembled, organized and trained at this camp.
After the secession of Louisiana on January 26th, 1861, the Convention which took Louisiana out of the Union, approved an ordinance which established a regular State military force. During the months of January and February, 1861, military companies were forming, some with funds from the Military Board and many with private funds. By the middle of February, 28 volunteer companies had been furnished arms by the Military Board. Most of these arms had come from the seizure of the Federal arsenal at Baton Rouge, La. There were enlisted a total of 1,765 men with the size of the companies varying from 120 men to 30 men, the minimum size set by the Board.
On March 19th, 1861, a call was made by Confederate Secretary of War, Leroy Walker for 1,700 volunteers to garrison forts inside the Confederacy. The Louisiana Legislature allowed Governor Moore to transfer State troops to Confederate service and permitted Louisiana citizens to volunteer for Confederate service. On April 8th, 1861, President Jefferson Davis asked Louisiana for 3,000 additional troops and after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, asked for 5,000 more.
New Orleans was the place designated to receive the volunteers. The Metairie Race Course (located where Metairie Cemetery now stands) was used as the military camp and by early May, 1861, some 3,000 troops had trained there. The training camp, called Camp Walker, was deficient in many ways. The lack of easy access to clean drinking water, the swarms of mosquitoes from surrounding swamps and the soft, marshy soil in the camp made the place intolerable to men.
Henry Forno and James Wingfield were sent into the piney woods of (then) St. Helena Parish to find a suitable training ground with good water and convenient to transportation of large quantities of men. Both men were from the area and settled on a site just north of the village of Tangipahoa, along the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad. Two companies of men from the 4th Louisiana regiment were sent north to secure and begin clearing the campsite. There were villages along this railroad approximately every ten miles to serve as water and wood stops on the railroad headed to Jackson, Mississipp and points north.
The site was chosen and militia General Elisha Tracy, who commanded Camp Walker, began to transfer most of his troops by rail to Camp Moore on May 13th, 1861. The 3rd Regiment of Louisiana Volunteers was left to complete its training at Camp Walker. The 4th Regiment and many unattached companies transferred to Camp Moore. Camp Moore was much better suited for use as a military camp than Camp Walker. Camp Moore sat 179 feet above sea level. At Camp Moore there was an abundance of fresh, clean drinking water, both from Beaver Creek and the Tangipahoa River. There was plenty of shade, well drained soil and according to many reports, almost no mosquitos. Individual companies that formed in the various parishes in the state would travel by boat, rail or by march to Camp Moore to be formed into regiments. While at Camp Moore, companies were brought to full strength (minimum of 64 privates and 8 NCO's would become the standard), the men elected their officers and then formed into groups of ten companies willing to serve together and thus became a Regiment. Groups forming into less than ten companies became Battalions. The men elected their own officers, both at the company level and the regimental level, thus there was much campaigning and politicking happening at Camp Moore.
Once a regiment was formed and the Colonel, Lt. Colonel and Major elected, the men were all sworn into State (of Louisiana) service. The State then allowed the men to be mustered into Confederate service. Most regiments left Camp Moore for the "seat of war" within a couple of days after being mustered into Confederate service. A regiment at this time numbered approximately 850-1000 men. Among those regiments mustered at Camp Moore that went to the Army of Northern Virginia were the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Infantry Regiments of Volunteers as well as the 1st (Wheat's) Special Battalion, Louisiana Infantry. Among those serving in the western part of the Confederacy were the 4th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 27th, 28th and 30th Regiments of Louisiana Infantry.
Letters from soldiers and visitors to the Camp describe it as being about one half mile above Tangipahoa Station and being bounded on the west by the Railroad, on the south by Beaver Creek, and on the east by the Tangipahoa River. General Tracy's headquarters was near Beaver Creek. There was a large Commissary and Quartermaster stores house located along the railroad. There was a coffee house, a grocery, sutlers, soda and refreshment shops, various kinds of shanty restaurants, a butcher's shop and a photographer's salon located along the western end of Beaver Creek. Just north of the creek was the main camping ground for companies of soldiers. The men cleared a large parade ground where they drilled and performed reviews for the generals just north of the main camp. Soon, a second camping site was laid out north of the Parade ground and this was unofficially known as Camp Tracy. There was also a burial ground at the northern edge of the Camp where soldiers were buried that died there of disease or accident. The first fatality would occur only three days after the Camp had opened when a member of Wheat's Battalion was accidentally killed by rail cars on May 16th, 1861. There were two large epidemics of measles in the Camp, one in late 1861 and the other in the Spring of 1862. This accounted for the largest numbers of death in Camp. Estimates of the number of men buried in the cemetery range from 200 to 800 men.
Major General Mansfield Lovell, commander of all troops defending New Orleans, came to Camp Moore in October 1861 and due to a lack of arms there, ordered the troops organized there to transfer to camps close to New Orleans. When Federal forces passed the river forts protecting New Orleans and then arrived at New Orleans on April 25th, 1862, all troops in New Orleans, including all locally impressed militia, were ordered to Camp Moore. Most of these men eventually were sent to other areas or in the case of the militia, simply went home to occupied New Orleans. Governor Moore visited Camp Moore in May 1862 and stayed about 10 days. In the following months, Camp Moore remained a camp of instruction for Louisiana conscripts and also served as a prisoner of war camp briefly. Gen. Daniel Ruggles, commanding the area comprising the Florida Parishes of Louisiana, made his headquarters at Camp Moore with about 1000 men. Gen. Elisha Tracy died suddenly in late 1862 at or near Camp Moore.
On July 28th, 1862, General John C. Breckinridge arrived at Camp Moore to make ready his campaign to liberate Baton Rouge from Federal occupation. He commanded Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Kentucky units. Breckinridge divided his 4000 men and Ruggles' 1000 men into two divisions and marched to Baton Rouge. On August 5th, 1862, they attacked the Federal garrison at Baton Rouge. Winning the land battle, the Confederate attack was eventually doomed due to the failure of the arrival of the ironclad CSS Arkansas, which was to disperse Federal gunboats and ironclads on the Mississippi River. Thus the Confederates were unsuccessful in regaining Baton Rouge.
Most infantry and artillery units in southern Louisiana were moved to Port Hudson, above Baton Rouge, when that place was fortified. This left mostly cavalry units in the vicinity of Camp Moore. Conscripts continued to be trained at Camp Moore in early 1863 and were also used to look after supplies left there. The forces left there were a skeleton force. Camp Moore was twice raided, once in April 1863 and then again in October 1864, at which time the Federal cavalry out of Baton Rouge destroyed a large amount of stored clothing, a tannery, tanned hides, all parts of the Camp, captured the garrison flag and dispersed a herd of cattle destined for Confederate use. In November, 1864, Gen. Davidson passed through Tangipahoa with 5,000 men and burned Camp Moore and all outbuildings. One soldier's letter says they even burned the wooden headboards in the cemetery. This last raid finished Camp Moore.
Camp Moore returned to nature for almost the next 30 years. In 1892, Camp No. 60 of the United Confederate Veterans was established at Tangipahoa, with their chief purpose being the care of the graves at Camp Moore. The Camp Moore chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was responsible for getting the donation of a two acre tract which encompassed the cemetery. They also got the Louisiana Legislature to appropriate funds to build a wall and fence around the cemetery in 1904. The monument was dedicated in the Cemetery in October 1907. In the 1960's, another tract of land was procured and a musuem built using State funds. The museum was dedicated in May, 1965 and the site was designated a State Commemorative Area. The site now was 6.5 acres of the original site.
In 1986, Governor Edwards closed the site, along with other commemorative areas across the State, during a State monetary crunch. It sat idle again for six years. The site was reopened in June, 1993 by a private, non-profit entity, the Camp Moore Historical Association. The Association has a 97-year lease with the State of Louisiana.
The museum contains numerous artifacts of the period and is open from 10 am to 3pm, Tuesday through Saturday. The grounds are a beautiful place for a picnic, wedding or just a quiet day in the country. Camp Moore is located along Hwy. 51, just north of Tangipahoa, LA. For more information, call the museum at (504) 229-2438.
Francis Redding Tillou Nicholls
1834 August 20 Born in Donaldsonville, Ascension Parish, Louisiana. His father was Thomas Charles Nicholls, a native of Maryland who practiced law in Donaldsonville and later became a District Judge and the First president of the Temperance Society. His mother was Louisa Hannon Drake of New York. Francis was educated at the Jefferson Academy in St. James Parish.
1851 Appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
1855 Graduates from the USMA 12th in a class of 34. Commissioned a brevet 2nd Lt. of the 2nd Artillery Regiment and serves briefly at Fort Myers, Florida and California.
1856 Resigns his commission due to health problems and studies law at the University of Louisiana (later Tulane U.) but leaves before he gains a degree to pass the bar and open a practice in Napoleonville.
1860 April 26 Marries Caroline Zilpha Guion. They will have one son and five daughters.
1861 Helps to raise an infantry company and is elected Captain. He is later appointed a Lt. Col. of the 8th Louisiana Infantry Regiment and will fight at the first battle of Manassas.
1862 May 25 Loses his left arm at the Battle of Winchester.
1863 May 4 Loses his left foot at the Battle of Chancellorsville where he commanded the 2nd La. Brigade as a Brig. General.
1864 Defends Lynchburg, Virginia and then controls the Conscript Bureau of the Trans-Mississippi Department until the war ends.
1865 Resumes his law practice in Assumption Parish.
1876 Nominated for governor by the Democrats and elected by a majority of 8,000 votes, but the Republican controlled State Returning Board cites irregularities and declares S. B. Packard the winner. Nicholls takes his seat, establishes a defacto government and is later recognized as governor by the federal government as part of the Compromise of 1877.
A conservative Democrat who looked at the antebellum period as a golden age in Louisiana, Francis R. T. Nicholls embodied the "Bourbon" or planter approach to less government-low taxes, few official services and little involvement by blacks in the political processes. Nicholls became Governor as part of the national compromise of 1877. In return for Louisiana's presidential electoral votes, Rutherford B. Hayes recognized Nicholls' victory over Stephen B. Packard.
Nicholls still had to determine which of the rival legislatures would act as the official institution. Nicholls convinced some Republicans to join his Democratic faction to give it the necessary quorum.
His first administration battled three corrupt men with great power: State Treasurer, Edward Burke; Samuel James, operator of the convict lease system, and Lieutenant Governor Louis Wiltz, a defender of the Louisiana Lottery. Wiltz presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1879 which reapportioned the legislature, moved the capital back to Baton Rouge, lowered taxes and cut a year from Nicholls' term. Nicholls fought the corrupt Louisiana Lottery throughout his second term. He lost the battle when the state Supreme Court revoked his dissolution of the lottery. Nicholls won the war, however, when the Federal government outlawed the use of mails to sell lottery tickets. Nicholls later became a Supreme Court Justice himself, serving until his retirement in 1911. He died in Thibodaux in 1912
Major General Franklin Gardner
Major General Franklin Gardner was a New Yorker, born 29 January 1823. His father was a career military officer and secured his son an appointment to West Point from Iowa in 1839. Gardner graduated in 1843 and was promoted to 2nd Lt. in the 7th Infantry. He then served at garrison duty in Pensacola Harbor, scouting on the frontier, in the occupation of Texas, and in the Mexican War where he won promotion to brevet 1st Lt. and then to brevet Capt. for gallant conduct. Afterwards, he was on frontier duty in Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Utah.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Gardner was at Ft. Bridger, Utah Territory, as a captain of the 10th Infantry. Since he was sympathetic to the southern cause, Gardner abandoned the service and joined the Confederate Army. He was appointed Lt. Col. of infantry on 16 March 1861, and at Shiloh was in command of a cavalry brigade which guarded the flanks of the army and saw no action. Still, he was promoted to Brig. Gen'l (11 April 1862) shortly after Gen'l Pierre G. T. Beauregard expressed his appreciation for Gen'l Gardner's help in reorganizing the army's cavalry. Gardner was given an infantry brigade in time for Gen'l Bragg's Kentucky campaign, and then on 13 December 1862, he received a commission as Major General. Gardner headquartered himself at Port Hudson and made a brilliant defense against superior numbers. Gardner surrendered after the fall of Vicksburg and after enduring the longest siege of any American military forces (49 days). He was exchanged, and he was then assigned to duty in Mississippi, at the last under the orders of Gen'l Richard Taylor.
Sgt. James W Nicholson
JAMES WILLIAM NICHOLSON, 1844-1917 President of Louisiana State University 1883-4, and 1887 -96. Distinguished teacher-author in mathematics.
J. W. Nicholson was born in Macon County, Alabama, June 16, 1844. His parents were Washing- ton Biddle Nicholson, of Scotch ancestry, and Martha Wafer Nicholson, of Irish descent.
While James was still an infant, his family moved to Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, settling at Forest Grove, near Homer. Here, Washington Nicholson rapidly developed a substantial plantation. James received his early education in the small schools near his home, but at the age of fourteen he was admitted to the college at Homer. In this Methodist institution he studied Latin, Greek, and other subjects, but his interest and proficiency were especially notable in mathematics.
At the age of sixteen, Nicholson enlisted as a private in the Twelfth Louisiana Infantry. He served with this and related units throughout the War For Southern Independence, returning home in 1865 with the rank of sergeant.
Upon return from the War, Nicholson re- entered the college at Homer, this time as both student and teacher of mathematics. Here he was awarded the Master's degree in 1867. Shortly after this, he entered into partnership with Austin Harris in the establishment of a school at Arizona, six miles from Homer. During the next several years he worked part of the time at this new school, and for the remainder at Homer. In 1877 came the major turn of affairs with his election to the chair of mathematics at Louisiana State University where he was to render his distinguished services to education.
J. W. Nicholson served twice as president of the University, 1883-4, and 1887-1896. Connected with his accession to the presidency, Governor McEnery made him colonel on his staff. The University prospered under Nicholson's presidential leadership, but he is not to be remembered primarily as an administrator, but as teacher and scholar. Even while serving as president, he continued to teach classes in his beloved field of mathematics. During his many non-presidential years at the University, as teacher and department head, he made an enviable record as a skilled, effective instructor, and as the writer of text materials that attained widespread use. Textbooks for use in elementary and high school grades, as well as more advanced works for the college level, came from his pen. For a generation, his arithmetic and algebra books were as familiar in Louisiana and elsewhere as McGuffie and Webster had been to countless nineteenth century students. His college level materials, including trigonometry and calculus, were used at. Yale and Harvard.
As a teacher, Colonel Nicholson had a quality of enthusiasm that inspired his students. His own clearness of thought enabled him to reduce complex problems to elementary terms. His new and simple demonstration of the binomial theorem won the admiration of some of the foremost mathematicians of the nation. His "trigonometric circle," an elegantly simple mnemonic device for learning the functions of sine, cosine, tangent, et cetera, brought widespread favorable attention. This he had worked out while yet a young man before moving to L.S.U. Its use became so strongly associated with his name that a representation of its design was made apart of his burial monument.
"Old Nick," as he was affectionately called, served an occasional stint as player of the bass tuba in the regimental band. Noting the difficulty which many students had with the technicalities of music, he devised a mnemonic device analogous to his trigonometric circle, this one to assist in learning the sharps and flats of the keys in which music is ,written.
A notable occurrence related to Nicholson's teaching was the admission to his classes in 1904 of the first woman student at L.S.U. Olivia Davis, a graduate of H. Sophie Newcomb College, took her advanced mathematics with Nicholson, and in 1905 she was awarded the Master's Degree. This was the entering wedge by which the University shortly thereafter became a coeducational institution.
Nicholson married Miss Sallie Baker, daughter of a North Louisiana physician, in 1876. To them were born five children, Gordon, Malcolm, Wilbur , Thera (Mrs. Stovall) , and Lilburne, who as Mrs. A. P. Daspit taught mathematics at L.S. U .for many years. After the death of Mrs. Nicholson in 1895, the Colonel did his best to serve as both father and mother to his children. Despite his other responsibilities he was frequently found with the children on a picnic, a fishing trip, or perhaps at a circus parade. Church-going was a regular aspect of fami- ly life, and for many years Nicholson taught a Bible Class and served on the Board of Stewards of the Methodist Church.
Colonel Nicholson loved a good story and he was a noted raconteur. Characteristically, he would use anecdotes in class or in less formal circumstance -sometimes to illustrate a point, otherwise simply to make life more pleasant. Upon occasion, also, he could speak eloquently and in utter seriousness. Notable instances were his eulogy at the funeral of Jefferson Davis, and his dedicatory address at the occasion of the presentation of Confederate battle flags to the State Museum.
Nicholson remained active in his work almost to the time of his death in 1917. Late in his career t he stepped aside from the usual role of mathematics teacher to write a delightful little book, Stories of Dixie. Simply written and spiced with humor, it tells the story of his family background, of living, conditions in North Louisiana prior to the War t and of his own wartime experiences. Among other
features, it provides insight as to the type of rural schools which he attended.
J. W. Nicholson is to be remembered as one who did much to build Louisiana State University, especially as a distinguished teacher. Also, by means of his soundly written textbooks, widely used, he bro11ght needed help to the teaching of mathematics in schools and colleges throughout the state and elsewhere.
Seldom has a man been more gratefully remembered by those who were his students, fellow-teachers, and fellow-citizens. Honors, academic and other- wise, came to him in life and to his memory after death. Tulane University and the A. and M. College of Alabama each conferred an honorary doctorate upon him. The principal mathematics building at L.S.U .is Nicholson Hall. The East Baton Rouge Parish mathematics teachers' organization is the Nicholson Mathematics Club. A Baton Rouge public school is the Nicholson School. There is the Nicholson Oak on the grounds of the State Capitol. Baton Rouge has the Nicholson Post of the American Legion, and Nicholson Drive is a main thorough- fare. During World War II, citizens of Baton Rouge bought a bomber, affectionately dubbed "Old Nick." As an indication of the long continued respect ac- corded him a dormitory at Northeast State College, Monroe, was named for him in 1960, 43 years after his death.
Despite the many material evidences of respect for the name of Nicholson, his most enduring monument is the educational benefit of his work in the lives of his students and of those who in turn have been taught by those he taught.
Brig. Gen. Thomas Moore Scott
Thomas M. Scott went to New Orleans, Louisiana as a young man, but later returned to Georgia residing in La Grange for some years. At the outbreak of the War for Southern Independence, he was engaged in farming in Claiborne Parish near the town of Homer. On 13 August 1861, he enlisted in the 12th Louisiana Infantry, then being organized at Camp Moore.
He was elected Colonel, and accompanied the 12th to Columbus, Kentucky for the battle of Belmont, athough it was not actively engaged. The 12th subsequently formed part of the garrison of Island No. 10, and in April 1862 at Fort Pillow under General John B. Villepique. In late 1862 and early 1863, Scott's 12th Louisiana was in the Port Hudson area as part of General William W. Loring's division . Taking part in the battle of Baker's Creek in the Vicksburg campaign, joining the forces of General Joseph E. Johnson in their operations. Scott's command remained in Mississippi until they accompanied General Leonidas Polk to Dalton, Georgia, in 1864. He distinguished himself in the ensuing Atlanta campaign, and was promoted brigadier general the 10 May 1864. Brigadier General Thomas Moore Scott led his brigade in Hood's ill-fated Tennessee campaign, and was severely wounded at the battle of Franklin in November by an shell explosion. He apparently saw no further service, for there is no record of his capture or parole.
Returning to Louisiana, he again engaged in farming near Homer, and for some years operated a sugar plantation on the Gulf Coast. He died in New Orleans on 21 April 1876, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
Maj. Jesse M. Cooper
Cooper, Jesse M., Capt. Co. F. 27th Regt. La. Infty. En. March 16th, 1862, New Orleans, La. Present on all Rolls to Dec., 1862.
27th La Infantry-This regiment was organized at Camp Moore in April, 1862, with 973 men. The regiment left for Vicksburg, Mississippi, on May I and arrived on May 4. During the first Federal campaign against Vicksburg, May 18-July 27, the men did picket duty north and south of the city. The regiment did guard and picket duty in Vicksburg from the fall of 1862 through the early spring of 1863. On May 18, 1863, the men skirmished with the enemy as General Ulysses s. Grant's army surrounded Vicksburg. The regiment held part of the line of entrenchments during the siege of the city, May 19-July 4. The men repulsed an attack on May 19 and were said to have captured the first enemy flag and prisoners taken during the siege. In the course of the siege, 58 men of the regiment were killed and 96 were wounded. Following the surrender and their parole, the men went into camp for a time at Enterprise. Most of the men then went home on furlough. Perhaps a majority of the men remained at home even after the government declared them exchanged in the fall of 1863. In the summer of 1864, six companies, reduced in strength, reorganized at Alexandria. Companies A and H reorganized at Clinton, Louisiana, and became part of Gober's Regiment Mounted Infantry. One source states that Company D never reorganized, but some records show at least part of it at Clinton in June, 1864. The regiment occupied a camp at Pineville until the end of the war. Occasionally, detachments would help garrison Fort Buhlow and Fort Randolph near the town. Many of the men began dispersing to their homes in late April, 1865. The remnants of the regiment marched to Mansfield and disbanded there about May 19.
AMBASSADOR JOHN SLIDELL
Born in New York City, N.Y., 1793, the Northern-born Slidell rose to prominence as a Louisiana politician in the decades before the Civil War. A lawyer who began his career as a businessman, he moved to New Orleans in 1819 after his mercantile interests failed during the War of 1812.
Slidell lost a bid for Congress in 1828 and was frustrated in his political ambitions until 1843, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. As a states-rights Democrat he supported James K. Polk for the presidency in 1844 and used questionable legal means to assure him a Louisiana majority in the presidential election. Polk appointed Slidell commissioner to Mexico, with instructions to settle the Texas-Mexico boundary dispute and purchase New Mexico and California. The mission failed when the Mexican government refused to accept his credentials.
Slidell was elected to the Senate in 1853 and cast his lot with other pro-Southern congressmen to repeal the Missouri Compromise, acquire Cuba, and admit Kansas under the Lecompton constitution. In the 1860 campaign Slidell supported Democratic presidential candidate John C. Breckinridge, but remained a pro-Union moderate until Abraham Lincoln's election pushed the Southern states into seceding. Siding with the South, Slidell accepted a diplomatic appointment to represent the Confederacy in France.
His arrival in Europe was delayed by the TRENT AFFAIR, when he and fellow diplomat James M. Mason were removed from their British-registered ship by the commander of a Federal vessel. Once there, he found the French sympathetic to the Confederate cause, but met with little success in securing extensive military aid or the Franco-Confederate treaty of alliance he sought. Slidell remained in France lobbying throughout the war. Though he was never able to accomplish a Franco-Confederate liaison, and though many of his Confederate colleagues distrusted him, Slidell, through his political abilities and bolstered by his marriage to a Louisiana Creole woman, arranged some Confederate financing through private French interests.
Uncertain of his safety at home after the war, Slidell and his family stayed in Paris. He never sought pardon from the Federal government for his Confederate service, dying in London, England, 29 July 1871.
Col. James Hamilton Beard
James H. Beard was born July 28,1833 in Lowndes Co Al to Edward Derrel and Caroline Rembert Beard. When he was 11 years old both parents died in an epidemic of Typhoid. He became a protege of DeSoto Parish pioneer Col Charles Edwards. He served as a steamboat captain and ran several Mills for Col Edwards. He married Katherine Thomkies Oct 1, 1857 and settled near Kingston in DeSoto Parish.
In 1860 Beard was operating a store in Shreveport, when La seceded he formed the first Infantry Co from the Shreveport. The Shreveport Grays became part of the 1st Special Battalion and went to VA. Beard later returned to LA and formed the 11th Inf Battalion. This became the Consolidated Cresent Regiment with Beard as it's Colonel. On April 8, 1864 Beard's command along with Gray's 28th La made the first charge against Banks at the Battle of Mansfield, high-point of the Red River Campaign.Col Beard was struck by a minie ball and killed. His brother removed his body from the field of Battle, and in a borrowed wagon took him home sum 15 miles up the road to his wife and two children, one of which was only 11 days old.
He was buried near his home in Kingston. His wife dedicated her life to the commemoration of the Confederacy, the UDC chapter in Desoto Parish is the Kate Beard Chapter.
Nathan Bedford Forrest
With no formal military training, Nathan Bedford Forrest became one of the leading cavalry figures of the Civil War. The native Tennesseean had amassed a fortune, which he estimated at $1,500,000, as a slave trader and plantation owner before enlisting in the Confederate army as a private in Josiah H. White's cavalry company on June 14, 1861. Tapped by the governor, he then raised a mounted battalion at his own expense.
His assignments included: lieutenant colonel, Forrest's Tennessee Cavalry Battalion (October 1861); colonel, 3rd Tennessee Cavalry (March 1862); brigadier general, CSA July 21, 1862); commanding cavalry brigade, Army of the Mississippi (summer-November 20, 1862); commanding cavalry brigade, Army of Tennessee (November 20, 1862 Summer 1863); commanding cavalry division, Army of Tennessee (summer 1863); commanding cavalry corps, Army of Tennessee (ca. August -September 29, 1863); commanding West Tennessee, (probably in) Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana (November 14, 1863 - January 11, 1864); major general, CSA (December 4, 1863); commanding cavalry corps, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana January 11 - 28, 1864); commanding District of Mississippi and East Louisiana, Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana January 27 - May 4, 1865); also commanding cavalry corps, Department of Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana January 28 - May 4, 1865); and lieutenant general, CSA (February 28, 1865).
When the mass Confederate breakout attempt at Fort Donelson failed, Forrest led most of his own men, and some other troops, through the besieging lines and then directed the rear guard during the retreat from Nashville. At Shiloh there was little opportunity for the effective use of the mounted troops and his command again formed the rear guard on the retreat. The day after the close of the battle Forrest was wounded. After serving during the Corinth siege he was promoted to brigadier general, and he raised a brigade with which he captured Murfreesboro, its garrison and supplies.
In December 1862 and January 1863 he led another raid, this time in west Tennessee, which contributed to the abandonment of Grant's campaign in central Mississippi; the other determining factor was Van Dorn's Holly Springs raid. Joining up with Joseph Wheeler, Forrest took part in the unsuccessful attack on Fort Donelson which resulted in Forrest swearing he would never serve under Wheeler again.
His next success came with the capture of the Union raiding column under Abel D. Streight in the spring of 1863. On June 14, 1863, he was shot by a disgruntled subordinate, Andrew W. Gould, whom Forrest then mortally wounded with his penknife. Recovering, he commanded a division that summer and then a corps at Chickamauga. Having had a number of disputes with army commander Braxton Bragg, Forrest was humiliated by being placed under Wheeler again. His request for transfer to west Tennessee was granted and he was dispatched there with a pitifully small force. Recruiting in that area, he soon had a force large enough to give Union commanders headaches. Sherman kept ordering his Memphis commanders to catch him.
When Forrest captured Fort Pillow a controversy developed over reports of a massacre of the largely black garrison. Apparently a massacre did occur there are numerous Confederate firsthand accounts of it. He defeated Samuel D. Sturgis at Brice's Crossroads and under Stephen D. Lee fought Andrew J. Smith at Tupelo. He again faced Smith during August 1864 and then provided the cavalry force for Hood's invasion of middle Tennessee that fall. Finally the force of numbers began to tell when he proved incapable of stopping Wilson's raid through Alabama and Georgia in the final months of the war. His diminished command was included in Richard Taylor's surrender.
Wiped out financially by the war, he resumed planting and became the president of the Selma, Marion & Memphis Railroad, which he helped to promote. Forrest once summed up his military theory as "Get there first with the most men." He died, probably of diabetes, at Memphis on October 29, 1877, and is buried there.
Elijah Hubbard Ward
Birth: 13 Jul 1830 in AL
Death: 7 Aug 1887 in Farmerville , LA
Burial: Ward Chapel Cemetery, Union Parish, LA
2nd Lt. - Co C - 31 La Inf - CSA
31st Infantry Regiment [including Morrison's 6th Louisiana Infantry Battalion] was organized at Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the early summer of 1862. Assigned to General Baldwin's Brigade, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana, the unit lost 9 killed and 16 wounded at Chickasaw Bluff and was captured defending Vicksburg. After being exchanged, it was placed in A. Thomas' Brigade, Trans-Mississippi Department, and fought in various conflicts in Louisiana. During the spring of 1865 it disbanded. The field officers were Colonel Charles H. Morrison, Lieutenant Colonel Sidney H.. Griffin, and Majors James W. Draughon and Thomas C. Humble.
Anacoco Rangers
Co K 19th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry
The 19th Infantry Regiment completed its organization in October, 1861, at Camp Moore, Louisiana. The men were raised in the parishes of Claiborne, Caddo, De Soto, and Vernon. It fought in the Battle of Shiloh, served in Mississippi, then was assigned to D.W. Adams' and Gibson's Brigade, Army of Tennessee. The regiment participated in the many campaigns of the army from Chickamauga to Atlanta, endured Hood's winter operations in Tennessee, and ended the war defending Mobile. It lost more than forty-five percent of the 350 engaged at Chickamauga, totalled 270 men and 157 arms in December, 1863, and during the Atlanta Campaign, May 14-28, reported 4 killed and 40 wounded. It had 201 fit for duty in November, 1864 and surrendered with the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. The field officers were Colonels Benjamin L. Hodge, R.W. Turner, and Wesley P. Winans; Lieutenant Colonels Loudon Butler, James M. Hollingsworth, and Hyder A. Kennedy; and Majors Camp Flournoy and Winfrey B. Scott.
Maj Gen Harry T Hays
HAYS, HARRY THOMPSON (1820-1876), Brigadier General. Born on April 14, 1820, in Wilson County, Tennessee, Hays attended St. Mary's College in Baltimore. He then practiced law in New Orleans and became active in the Whig party. He fought with the Fifth Louisiana in the Mexican War.
When the Civil War began, Hays became a colonel of the Seventh Louisiana Infantry and fought at First Manassas and in Stonewall Jackson's 1862 Shenandoah Valley cam- paign with Richard Taylor's brigade. Hays was severely wounded at Port Republic but returned to duty at Sharps- burg. He had been commissioned a brigadier general on July 25, 1862, and succeeded Taylor as commander of the Louisiana brigade. Hays fought at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, but was seriously wounded again at Spotsylvania. After he recovered, Hays was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department in July 1864 where he searched for absentees from the Army of Northern Virginia until Robert E. Lee's surrender. No longer needed for this duty, he replaced William Robertson Boggs in command of the District of Louisiana. On May 10, 1865, E. Kirby Smith promoted Hays to major general, although this was not approved by Richmond.
After the war, Hays returned to New Orleans where he served as sheriff of Orleans Parish until Philip Sheridan removed him from the office in 1866. He later practiced law with Gen. Daniel Weisiger Adams. Hays died on August 21, 1876, and is buried in Washington Avenue Cemetery, New Orleans.
Lt. J. Y. Sanders
Jared Young Sanders I was born March 8, 1791 in Chester County, South Carolina. His parents moved to Adams County, Mississippi and then, in 1815, to Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Shortly thereafter, Jared Young Sanders I followed his uncle, James Sanders, to western St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. In 1818, he married Rachel Nixon Hulick, a native of New Jersey, whose family had recently arrived in St. Mary Parish.
Jared Young Sanders I and his beloved wife, Rachel, were blessed with a large family. The youngest son, his father’s namesake, Jared Young Sanders II was born in 1839 on the Sanders plantation near Franklin. A short time later, Jared and Rachel sold their property in western St. Mary Parish and established Inglewood Plantation near Brashear which is today Morgan City.
Jared Young Sanders II was sent to his father’s native state to complete his education and, in December, 1860, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from South Carolina College, which is now the University of South Carolina, in Columbia. The election of Abraham Lincoln, a proponent of unbridled Federal power, to the presidency in 1860 convinced the states of the South that the only hope for the preservation of states’ rights lay in secession from the Federal Union. A new nation, the Confederate States of America, was established in February, 1861. Lincoln’s refusal to withdraw Federal troops from Confederate territory led to war in April of that year; and Jared Young Sanders II became a lieutenant, and ultimately a captain, in Company B of the 26th Louisiana Infantry Regiment. He served with distinction during the conflict and participated in the defense of Vicksburg.
On his twenty-ninth birthday, February 4, 1868, Jared Young Sanders II married his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Alzira Wofford. The couple had many children, the first of whom was Jared Young Sanders III who would, in 1908, become Governor of Louisiana. Jared Young Sanders III and Byrnes Young, the second son of Olympus Young, were life-long friends. In 1996, it seemed both natural and right to name this Center which is dedicated to the honor, the nobility, and the heritage of Louisiana, after two neighboring families who typified the bonds of friendship, commitment, and duty which characterize the traditions of our state.
Washington Rifles
Co. I 9th La Infantry
July 6, 1861 Sworn into Confederate service at Camp Moore. Arrived too late to be engaged at First Manassas. Regiment was brigaded under Brigadier General Richard Taylor with the 6th, 7th, and 8th LA inf. regiments and Wheat's Special Battalion in Ewell's Division. They participated in Jackson's Valley Campaign and fought in most of the major battles in the Eastern Theater including: Front Royal, 2nd Manassas, Sharpsburg (Antietam), Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, The Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. April 9, 1865 surrendered at Appomattox Court House with 4 officers and 64 enlisted men. 1,474 men enrolled in the 9th La Inf during the war. 233 were killed, 349 died of disease, and 4 died of accidental deaths. This was the highest casualty rate of any Louisiana unit in the Army of Northern Virginia.