actually the story behind the "Louisiana Tigers" is a pretty cool one...

The Tiger Rifles, one company in Confederate Maj. Roberdeau Wheat's battalion of Louisiana infantry, lent its name to that battalion, and shortly all the troops from Louisiana in Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia became known as Louisiana Tigers. The Tigers earned such a reputation on the battlefield for fearlessness and hard fighting that they were called upon time after time to turn around some desperate situation or to act as shock troops to break the enemy's line. The Tigers also deserved their other reputation- the unsavory one of thievery, drunkenness, and fighting while in camp.

The Tigers contained almost as many foreign-born soldiers as native Louisianans. At least 24 nationalities were represented in the Tigers' ranks, Ireland supplying the largest foreign component by far. The city of New Orleans supplied large numbers of the unsavory elements from its waterfront, and these "wharf rats" brought their drunkenness and criminal behavior with them into the army and were a constant problem for their leaders. The many French-speaking units that wore the brightly colored Zouave uniforms lent an exotic air to the Tigers' camps that contrasted sharply with the atmosphere among units from other Confederate states.

The Louisiana Tigers' reputation for fearless fighting on the battlefield was both deserved and well documented. At the 1st Battle of Manassas they anchored the left flank of the Southern army against heavt Northern opposition until Southern reinforcements could arrive. They marched with Gen. Stonewall Jackson in his brilliant Shenendoah Valley campaign of 1862, and were conspicious on most of the bloodstained battlefields of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. After watching some of the Tigers break through a stubborn federal line, a jubilant and grateful Gen. Jubal A. Early shouted, "Those damned Louisiana fellows may steal as much as they please now!"

This post was edited on 10/23/09 at 1:03 pm