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re: Civil War nicknames for SEC states..
Posted on 6/27/12 at 2:03 pm to mizzoukills
Posted on 6/27/12 at 2:03 pm to mizzoukills
Meanwhile, back to the topic at hand...
On Texans in Louisiana:
During the Civil War, regiments from opposing armies frequently faced each other on numerous battlefields, the encounters oftentimes engendering a sense of deadly rivalry. Soldiers in the ranks guarded regimental reputations jealously, and fought for the integrity and honor of their units as strenuously as for country and cause. Two such rival units squared off against each other in Central Louisiana in late spring, 1863.
In August 1862, Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler ordered Union officers under his command to collect several companies of cavalry from among white Unionists and other pro-Northern refugees in New Orleans and the surrounding region. In desperate need of horse soldiers for scouting and courier duty in the Louisiana lowlands, Butler took applications from junior officers eager to raise these units, endeavors for which they would possibly earn promotions in rank. Capt. John Franklin Godfrey, formerly a second lieutenant with a Maine artillery battery, went into the Crescent City, opened a storefront recruiting office, and began assembling his command. “The recruits are mostly foreigners, or men of Northern birth,” he wrote home about his enlistees. They will fight as well for one side as another.” By October, four companies of New Orleans recruits took the field. “I recruited my company in a little over three weeks,” Godfrey noted. “The men are nearly all Germans, a few Irish, and some Americans.”
This odd assortment of troops learned the art of war in the fall of 1862. Armed with Sharp’s carbines, revolvers, and sabers, these independent cavalry companies saw their first action in Brig. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel’s Lafourche campaign. When Nathaniel P. Banks arrived in December and replaced General Butler, part of his reorganization plan included ordering Maj. Harai Robinson, described by one Confederate as a “renegade Texan,” to assemble these independent companies, raise additional scouting units, and create the 1st Louisiana Cavalry.
Of the company commanders in the 1st Louisiana, Capt. Richard Barrett of Company B had risen to the fore as an active and aggressive officer. His specialty was picket skirmishing, and he and his men were proud of their ability to best Rebel horsemen and to bring in prisoners for interrogation. Weitzel had leaned heavily on the services of the independent Louisiana cavalry companies, and after their consolidation Major Robinson would rely strongly on Barrett. “This officer and his company” a Confederate officer noted, “were the especial boast and pride of the enemy.”3
Opposing these blue-clad Louisianans on many fields were the troopers of Lieut. Col. Edward Waller’s 13th Texas Cavalry Battalion, raised at almost the same time as their nemesis. Recruited from counties in southern and western Texas, these men were experienced horsemen but unseasoned soldiers. On September 8, 1862, when Waller’s troops had fought the Federals for the first time at Bonnet Carre, near St. Charles Parish Courthouse along the Mississippi River, the Texans had suffered a disastrous defeat, in part, at the hands of the independent companies that became the 1st Louisiana. The Texans lost most of their mounts and a good deal of their arms and equipment as they fled into the chackbay swamp to escape a superior force of cavalry and infantry supported by gunboats. Effectively neutralized as a military force, the regiment was removed from the Lafourche region until they could reorganize. The retreat took them to Lake Charles and Petit Anse Island, Louisiana Traveling to the rear in improvised transportation, the once proud Texans horsemen and cowboys suffered humiliation at the hands of Brig. Gen. Jean Jacques Alfred Mouton’s Louisiana infantry, who dubbed their Lone Star allies the “cane cart cavalry.”
ETA source:
“The Carnival of Death:”
The Cavalry Battle at
Cheneyville, Louisiana,
May 20, 1863
On Texans in Louisiana:
During the Civil War, regiments from opposing armies frequently faced each other on numerous battlefields, the encounters oftentimes engendering a sense of deadly rivalry. Soldiers in the ranks guarded regimental reputations jealously, and fought for the integrity and honor of their units as strenuously as for country and cause. Two such rival units squared off against each other in Central Louisiana in late spring, 1863.
In August 1862, Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler ordered Union officers under his command to collect several companies of cavalry from among white Unionists and other pro-Northern refugees in New Orleans and the surrounding region. In desperate need of horse soldiers for scouting and courier duty in the Louisiana lowlands, Butler took applications from junior officers eager to raise these units, endeavors for which they would possibly earn promotions in rank. Capt. John Franklin Godfrey, formerly a second lieutenant with a Maine artillery battery, went into the Crescent City, opened a storefront recruiting office, and began assembling his command. “The recruits are mostly foreigners, or men of Northern birth,” he wrote home about his enlistees. They will fight as well for one side as another.” By October, four companies of New Orleans recruits took the field. “I recruited my company in a little over three weeks,” Godfrey noted. “The men are nearly all Germans, a few Irish, and some Americans.”
This odd assortment of troops learned the art of war in the fall of 1862. Armed with Sharp’s carbines, revolvers, and sabers, these independent cavalry companies saw their first action in Brig. Gen. Godfrey Weitzel’s Lafourche campaign. When Nathaniel P. Banks arrived in December and replaced General Butler, part of his reorganization plan included ordering Maj. Harai Robinson, described by one Confederate as a “renegade Texan,” to assemble these independent companies, raise additional scouting units, and create the 1st Louisiana Cavalry.
Of the company commanders in the 1st Louisiana, Capt. Richard Barrett of Company B had risen to the fore as an active and aggressive officer. His specialty was picket skirmishing, and he and his men were proud of their ability to best Rebel horsemen and to bring in prisoners for interrogation. Weitzel had leaned heavily on the services of the independent Louisiana cavalry companies, and after their consolidation Major Robinson would rely strongly on Barrett. “This officer and his company” a Confederate officer noted, “were the especial boast and pride of the enemy.”3
Opposing these blue-clad Louisianans on many fields were the troopers of Lieut. Col. Edward Waller’s 13th Texas Cavalry Battalion, raised at almost the same time as their nemesis. Recruited from counties in southern and western Texas, these men were experienced horsemen but unseasoned soldiers. On September 8, 1862, when Waller’s troops had fought the Federals for the first time at Bonnet Carre, near St. Charles Parish Courthouse along the Mississippi River, the Texans had suffered a disastrous defeat, in part, at the hands of the independent companies that became the 1st Louisiana. The Texans lost most of their mounts and a good deal of their arms and equipment as they fled into the chackbay swamp to escape a superior force of cavalry and infantry supported by gunboats. Effectively neutralized as a military force, the regiment was removed from the Lafourche region until they could reorganize. The retreat took them to Lake Charles and Petit Anse Island, Louisiana Traveling to the rear in improvised transportation, the once proud Texans horsemen and cowboys suffered humiliation at the hands of Brig. Gen. Jean Jacques Alfred Mouton’s Louisiana infantry, who dubbed their Lone Star allies the “cane cart cavalry.”
ETA source:
“The Carnival of Death:”
The Cavalry Battle at
Cheneyville, Louisiana,
May 20, 1863
This post was edited on 6/27/12 at 2:50 pm
1
Posted on 6/27/12 at 2:28 pm to WildTchoupitoulas
On family ties and Jayhawkers...
My great-great-grandfather joined the 7th volunteer cavalry regiment:
"Major General Richard Taylor authorized the formation of this regiment to operate against Jayhawkers in southwestern Louisiana. Many of the men who joined it were deserters from infantry units, principally the 10th Louisiana (Yellow Jackets) Infantry Battalion. Colonel Louis Bush mustered in the regiment as the 4th Louisiana Cavalry on March 13, 1864, at Moundville, though its organization remained incomplete. The men retreated to Natchitoches in advance of General Nathaniel Banks’s Union army, which had started its Red River Campaign. The regiment did picket duty between Natchitoches and Alexandria and participated in skirmishes at Crump’s Hill, April 2, and at Wilson’s Farm, April 7. About April 11, the regiment accompanied the 2nd Louisiana Cavalry on a raid into the Opelousas and Attakapas region to clear out small bands of enemy soldiers and groups of Jayhawkers. The men had returned to the Red River area by April 22, when they fired on a Union transport about fourteen miles southeast of Alexandria. After a few days in that area, the regiment returned to south Louisiana to recruit and perform outpost duty. From June, 1864, until the end of the war, the men remained in the latter duty, occasionally engaging in campaigns against Jayhawkers or in picket duty near the Atchafalaya River. In October, 1864, the regiment reorganized and changed its designation to the 7th Louisiana Cavalry. Small parties of the regiment, particularly from Companies A and C, made raids into the Bayou Lafourche region in late 1864 and early 1865. These raids had as their objective the acquisition of horses and supplies as well as the harassment of the enemy. The majority of the regiment occupied a camp near Alexandria in May, 1865, when the Trans-Mississippi Department surrendered; but some men received their paroles at Franklin."
My great-great-grandfather joined the 7th volunteer cavalry regiment:
"Major General Richard Taylor authorized the formation of this regiment to operate against Jayhawkers in southwestern Louisiana. Many of the men who joined it were deserters from infantry units, principally the 10th Louisiana (Yellow Jackets) Infantry Battalion. Colonel Louis Bush mustered in the regiment as the 4th Louisiana Cavalry on March 13, 1864, at Moundville, though its organization remained incomplete. The men retreated to Natchitoches in advance of General Nathaniel Banks’s Union army, which had started its Red River Campaign. The regiment did picket duty between Natchitoches and Alexandria and participated in skirmishes at Crump’s Hill, April 2, and at Wilson’s Farm, April 7. About April 11, the regiment accompanied the 2nd Louisiana Cavalry on a raid into the Opelousas and Attakapas region to clear out small bands of enemy soldiers and groups of Jayhawkers. The men had returned to the Red River area by April 22, when they fired on a Union transport about fourteen miles southeast of Alexandria. After a few days in that area, the regiment returned to south Louisiana to recruit and perform outpost duty. From June, 1864, until the end of the war, the men remained in the latter duty, occasionally engaging in campaigns against Jayhawkers or in picket duty near the Atchafalaya River. In October, 1864, the regiment reorganized and changed its designation to the 7th Louisiana Cavalry. Small parties of the regiment, particularly from Companies A and C, made raids into the Bayou Lafourche region in late 1864 and early 1865. These raids had as their objective the acquisition of horses and supplies as well as the harassment of the enemy. The majority of the regiment occupied a camp near Alexandria in May, 1865, when the Trans-Mississippi Department surrendered; but some men received their paroles at Franklin."
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