The Civil War in Louisiana - Paperback

by John D. Winters (Author), T. Harry Williams (Foreword by)

This comprehensive history fills an important gap in the story of the Civil War. Too often the war waged west of the Mississippi River has been given short shrift by historians and scholars, who have tended to focus their attention on the great battles east of the river. This book looks in detail at the military operations that occurred in Louisiana--most of them minor skirmishes, but some of them battles and campaigns of major importance.

The Civil War in Louisiana begins with the first talk of secession in the state and ends with the last tragic days of the war. John D. Winters describes with great fervor and detail such events as the fall of Confederate New Orleans and the burning of Alexandria. In addition to military action, Winters discusses the political, economic, and social aspects of the war in Louisiana. His accounts of battles and the men who waged them provide a fuller story of Louisiana in the Civil War than has ever before been told.

Front Jacket

This comprehensive history of the Civil War in Louisiana adds an important chapter to the story of the most tragic episode in American history. Too often the war in the West has been overlooked by historians and scholars with theireyes on the great battles in the East: Gettysburg and Chancellorsville, Antietam. But military events elsewhere were no less significant in deciding that the cause of secession should fail and that the cause of the Union should succeed.

It was in Louisiana that the Confederacy lost its largest city, and the fallof New Orleans was a crucial one. It was in Louisiana that the South lost its last bid for control of the Mississippi. The surrender of the besieged garrison at Port Hudson only days after the loss of Vicksburg cut the Confederacy's single lifeline to the West. It was in Louisiana that the last armies fought on, there that the last hope of victory died in June of 1865.

The Civil War in Louisiana covers the war from the first talk of secession to the last tragic scenes. Here are the battles--the great riverengagement in which Farragut's fleet shelled its way past Forts Jackson and St.Philip, the Confederate attack on Union forces holding Baton Rouge, the war in the Teche country, the burning of Alexandria, the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill.

Here, too, are the men, the players at this game of war--Edmund Kirby Smith, Dick Taylor, the general called "Beast," and a wounded soldier named Henry Watkins Allen who served as governor.

"Professor Winters," says the distinguished Civil War author and scholar T. Harry Williams in his introduction, "has researched widely and deeply, inscattered and sometimes fugitive sources, and he has produced a fuller story of Louisiana in the Civil War than has ever before been told. He spreads out a full story but not a mere accumulation of facts. He has written his narrative with sympathy and humor and interest, and always with objective restraint. It is a work that should stand for many years as authoritative in its field."-- "New Orleans Times-Picayune"

Back Jacket

This comprehensive history of the Civil War in Louisiana adds an important chapter to the story of the most tragic episode in American history. Too often the war in the West has been overlooked by historians and scholars with theireyes on the great battles in the East: Gettysburg and Chancellorsville, Antietam. But military events elsewhere were no less significant in deciding that the cause of secession should fail and that the cause of the Union should succeed.

It was in Louisiana that the Confederacy lost its largest city, and the fallof New Orleans was a crucial one. It was in Louisiana that the South lost its last bid for control of the Mississippi. The surrender of the besieged garrison at Port Hudson only days after the loss of Vicksburg cut the Confederacy's single lifeline to the West. It was in Louisiana that the last armies fought on, there that the last hope of victory died in June of 1865.

The Civil War in Louisiana covers the war from the first talk of secession to the last tragic scenes. Here are the battles--the great riverengagement in which Farragut's fleet shelled its way past Forts Jackson and St.Philip, the Confederate attack on Union forces holding Baton Rouge, the war in the Teche country, the burning of Alexandria, the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill.

Here, too, are the men, the players at this game of war--Edmund Kirby Smith, Dick Taylor, the general called "Beast," and a wounded soldier named Henry Watkins Allen who served as governor.

"Professor Winters," says the distinguished Civil War author and scholar T. Harry Williams in his introduction, "has researched widely and deeply, inscattered and sometimes fugitive sources, and he has produced a fuller story of Louisiana in the Civil War than has ever before been told. He spreads out a full story but not a mere accumulation of facts. He has written his narrative with sympathy and humor and interest, and always with objective restraint. It is a work that should stand for many years as authoritative in its field."

Author Biography

John D. Winters was professor of history emeritus at Louisiana Tech University, in Ruston.