Civil War tour of Bayou Lafourche offered

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When people think of Civil War history, the major battlefields of Shiloh, Gettysburg and Antietam easily come to mind as places of interest with stories to tell.

But Lafourche and Terrebonne – along with neighboring parishes and the city of New Orleans – have their own slices of Civil War history, and in October a premier expert on the war in the bayou country will lead a tour of local spots that were touched by the war in ways large and small.

Former Nicholls State University professor Chris Peña, author of “Scarred By War: Civil War in Southeast Louisiana” (Authorhouse 2004) will serve as guide and narrator for a Bayou Lafourche Civil War tour scheduled for Sat., Oct. 21. The all-day bus tour will include lunch, and copies of Peña’s book will be available for sale.


Following the capture of New Orleans by Union forces in May 1862, federal forces set their sights on controlling the Mississippi River, and thereby splitting the Confederacy in two.

The later July 1863 Union capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson proved disastrous for the South. Meanwhile, to protect New Orleans and the west bank of the river below Donaldsonville, Louisiana’s bayou country had to be cleared of all Confederate opposition.

“Fought between October 1862 and July 1863, Bayou Lafourche witnessed four battles, including Fort Butler, where black troops participated in the carnage,” said Nic Clark, a life-long student of the American Civil War who organized Civil War Tours of New Orleans. Experienced at giving tours related to the war’s history in the Crescent City, Clark teamed up with Peña – literally the guy who wrote the book – for this new outing on the bayou.


A graduate of Centenary College of Louisiana with a degree in History, Clark has been a tour guide and also a re-enactor.

Peña now lives in Tennessee but has visited Louisiana often again since the release of his new book, a foray into historical fiction titled “The Strange Case of Dr. Etienne Deschamps: Murder in the New Orleans French Quarter.”

“It’s important for the folks to know what transpired along the bayou during the war,” Peña said, explaining why he agreed to help his friend Clark. “Hopefully, it will serve as a reminder, and appreciation for, how far we have truly come socially, politically, and economically since that period. In the grander scheme of the war, the battles fought along the bayou were often eclipsed by larger conflicts in other regions of the South. But for the people of Lafourche, the war could not have been more terrorizing. When one is touched and scarred by war, as those folks were in Lafourche, how it compares to other bloodier battles fought elsewhere gives them little solace.”


From the railroad tracks along U.S. 90 passing through Boutte and Des Allemands to the Assumption Parish battleground known as Georgia Landing, local highways are riddled with spots where lives were lost and history made.

In addition to the battles fought in the Bayou Lafourche region, federal occupation of Houma resulted in several stories and legends, including the tale of revenge wreaked on the town in return for the murder of wounded federal soldiers from ambushed locals, and the donating of the bell from a local church in response to a call for church bells from Gen. Leonidas Polk – himself the owner of a Bayou Lafourche plantation.

The all-day tour costs $120 per person.


For further information call (504) 909-1862 or enail info@civilwarnola.com. •

Civil War Tour