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97 books match the query 'Louisiana' and 8 start with a

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A Southern Record

The History of the Third Regiment Louisiana Infantry

William Tunnard

University of Arkansas Press, 1997

Originally published in a limited edition in 1866, this memoir of Will Tunnard’s experiences and observations of the Civil War in the West, where he served in the famed Third Louisiana Infantry, is one of only a handful of chronicles left by western Confederate soldiers. His first-person account of the battles of Wilson’s Creek, Pea Ridge, Iuka, and Corinth as well as the seige of Vicksburg, is a vivid history of these hard-fought campaigns which determined the outcome of the war in the Trans-Mississippi theater.

Using letters and diaries assembled from former comrades as well as his own daily journal, Tunnard tells the story of his regiment and its extraordinary odyssey from the Gulf of Mexico to the Ozark Plateau and from the Indian Territory to Mobile Bay. He offers an extensive and valuable account of capture and parole at Vicksburg and includes muster rolls which will interest genealogists as well as Civil War scholars and history enthusiasts. With a clear eye for detail and an engaging, objective style, Tunnard conveys the pathos of war and recounts the trials of camp life, social conditions, and the war’s affect on the civilian population.

Noted Civil War scholar William L. Shea supports the original text with background on the regiment and the time period, sketching a helpful chronology of events. In retelling this remarkable story of comradeship, hardship, endurance, courage, pride, and eventual defeat, Tunnard and Shea give modern readers a rare glimpse of the war in the West.

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A Thrilling Narrative

The Memoir of a Southern Unionist

Dennis E. Haynes

University of Arkansas Press, 2006

This Civil War memoir of Capt. Dennis E. Haynes is both unique and rare. Not only did few southern unionists write of their experiences after the war, Haynes’s is the only publication by a Louisiana unionist. Furthermore, it is the only account by a member of the First Louisiana Battalion Cavalry Scouts, a unit that existed for less than three months and saw its only real action during the Red River Campaign of 1864. Haynes’s memoir is a historic collection of his wartime experiences as a unionist in the Confederate South. Among his writings, Haynes describes how he opposed the secession of Texas and thus became a hunted man. He also tells of his harrowing odyssey to reach Union troops in Louisiana. Every step of the way, Haynes provides details, sometimes graphic, of the harassment and cruelty he and many others like him suffered at the hands of his Confederate neighbors.

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A Troubled Dream

The Promise and Failure of School Desegregation in Louisiana

Carl L. Bankston

Vanderbilt University Press, 2002

Winner, Louisiana Literary Award 2003

Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, the United States still has a long way to go to attain true integration of our educational system.

Using extensive interviews and a wealth of statistical information, Bankston and Caldas examine the failed desegregation efforts in Louisiana as a case study to show how desegregation has followed the same unsuccessful pattern across the United States. Strong supporters of the dream of integration, Bankston and Caldas show that the practical difficulty with desegregation is that academic environments are created by all the students in a school from the backgrounds that all the students bring with them. Unfortunately, the disadvantages that minority children have to overcome affect schools more than schools can help remedy these disadvantages.

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A Wetland Biography

Seasons on Louisiana’s Chenier Plain

By Gay M. Gomez

University of Texas Press, 1998

Louisiana's Chenier Plain is a 2,200-square-mile region of marshes and oak-covered ridges (cheniers) that stretches along the Gulf of Mexico from Sabine Lake to Vermilion Bay. Its inhabitants, some 6,000 people of Cajun and other ancestries, retain strong economic and cultural ties to the land and its teeming wildlife. They call it paradise...but it is a vulnerable paradise. In this multifaceted study, Gay Gomez explores the interaction of the land, people, and wildlife of the Chenier Plain, revealing both the uniqueness of the region and the challenges it faces.

After describing the geography and history of the Chenier Plain, Gomez turns to the lifeways of its people. Drawing on their words and stories, she tells how the chenier dwellers combine modern occupations with traditional pursuits such as alligator and waterfowl hunting, fur trapping, and fishing. She shows how these traditions of wildlife use provide both economic incentives for conservation and a source of personal and place identity. This portrait of a "working wetland" reveals how wildlife use and appreciation can give rise to a stewardship that balances biological, economic, and cultural concerns in species and habitat protection.

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A Whole Country in Commotion

The Louisiana Purchase and the American Southwest

Patrick G. Williams

University of Arkansas Press, 2005

Bringing together the work of prominent scholars and rising stars in southern, western, and Indian history, A Whole Country in Commotion explores lesser-known aspects of one of the better-known episodes in U.S. history. While the purchase has been seen as a great boon for the United States, doubling the size of the new nation and securing American navigation on the Mississippi River, it also brought turmoil to many. Looking past the triumphal aspects of the purchase, this book examines the “negotiations among peoples, nations and empires that preceded and followed the actual transfer of territory.” Its nine essays highlight the “commotion” the purchase stirred up—among nations, among Louisiana residents and newcomers, even among those who remained east of the Mississippi. Many of these essays look at the portion of the Louisiana territory that would become Arkansas to illustrate the profound impact of the purchase on the diverse populations of the American Southwest. Others explore the woeful commotion brought to many thousands of lives as Jefferson’s “noble bargain” set the stage for the forced migration of native and African Americans from the east to the west of the Mississippi.

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Always for the Underdog

Leather Britches Smith and the Grabow War

Keagan LeJeune

University of North Texas Press, 2010

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Amphibious Campaign For West Florida and Louisiana

Wilburt S. Brown

University of Alabama Press, 1969

Strategy, sea, and swamp—redefining the battle that shaped America’s Gulf frontier.

Amphibious Campaign for West Florida and Louisiana, 1814–1815 is a definitive military history of the Gulf Coast operations that culminated in the Battle of New Orleans, one of the most pivotal engagements of the War of 1812. Written by retired Marine Corps Major General Wilburt S. Brown, this book offers a deeply analytical and interpretive account of the campaign, grounded in a meticulous review of primary sources and informed by modern military doctrine.

Brown examines the strategic decisions, logistical challenges, and tactical maneuvers of both British and American forces as they vied for control of West Florida and Louisiana. He reconstructs the complex amphibious operations, the coordination between naval and land forces, and the leadership of figures such as Andrew Jackson and Sir Edward Pakenham. With military precision and narrative clarity, Brown brings to life the suspense and significance of the campaign, emphasizing its broader implications for American sovereignty and military development.

This volume stands out not only for its scholarly rigor but also for its ability to engage readers with the drama and urgency of historical warfare. It remains one of the most authoritative accounts of the Gulf Coast theater and is essential reading for historians, military scholars, and anyone interested in the evolution of American defense strategy.

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