The War for Southern Independence

In early 1861, southern states began seceding from the Union
to form an independent government known as the Confederate States of America.
Although Louisiana's governor, Thomas O. Moore, announced that he did not believe
our state could survive under Lincoln's Republican administration,
many Louisiana residents did not want to join the Confederacy.
Instead, a political push was made to realign ourselves with France
and become a French territory, thereby avoiding a war.

After delegates met in Baton Rouge for two weeks,
enough votes were gathered to join the new nation
and the worst war in North American history.

The combat that ripped through the South did not reach Natchitoches
until the spring of 1864, when the infamous Red River Campaign was staged.
Thirty thousand Union troops were led from south Louisiana by
General Nathanial Banks, a politically appointed general with doubtful credentials.

His goal was three-fold as he pushed through the northern part of our state,
the capture of the Confederate capital at Shreveport,
establishment of elections and pro Union politicians,
and confiscation of the huge supply of cotton
said to lay in storage along the rich bottom land of the upper Red River.

His priorities for these goals were not necessarily in this order.

The invading army entered Natchitoches on March 31, 1864
and promptly commandeered the local newspaper,
changing its name to the Natchitoches Union.
The following is an excerpt of a paper published by them on April 4, 1864:
"We beg to assure our citizens that all Yankees look very much like other
American people, and there are among our soldiers no giriffies or
misshapen beings, as has been represented.
To some, it may seem superfluous to make that statement,
but we are led to it by overhearing a lady ask a soldier if it was true
that some of our troops had but one eye,
and that in the middle of the forehead,
as she had been told by Confederate soldiers.
The wicked soldier gravely informed her that it was too true,
that there was a regiment of them,
and they dressed in an eastern costume,
wearing very broad red trousers,
and that many of them were Amazons.
Such misrepresentations only tend to damage the Rebel cause."