Book Summary
Collection of top scholarly essays, articles, and chapters related to the Louisiana home front during the Civil War.
Book Synopsis
The Civil War wrought extensive damage throughout Louisiana and created widespread hardship and suffering for those living in a war zone. In this volume, Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr. outlines the impact of the War Between the States on Loui-siana's politics, economy, and society. While not a major battleground, the state was of critical strategic importance to both the Union and the Confederacy because of its vital waterway, the Mississippi River.
A state divided, with Union forces occupying New Orleans and Baton Rouge and a separate Confederate government administering in the state's central and northern regions, Louisiana's fragmented political apparatus worked to alleviate the stresses of war on the state's civilian population. The Pelican State's rural Union and Confederate governments also schemed to control the regional economy, most notably its human capital, slaves, and its major money-maker, cotton. The ravages of war left many Louisianians without food, shelter, or a means of support. This volume highlights the problems created by the Union's naval block-ade in the port of New Orleans and the destruction of the state's transportation infra-structure, which created pockets of impoverished people. With the invading Union troops came waves of black refugees, newly freed from their lives of slavery and ill-equipped to support themselves. Contributing to the bleak economic situation in larger Louisiana cities, these freedmen also needed the food, shelter, and clothing provided by the wartime administrations. The Home Front presents the reader with a broad picture of life in Louisiana from 1861 to 1865 and illustrates the state's critical importance to the formation of the Confederate States of America and the preservation of the United States of America. By moving the focus behind the battle line, this volume reveals the dispa-rate loyalties and experiences of the peoples of Louisiana during the Civil War. Editor Arthur Bergeron has collected the best recent scholarship on Louisiana's economic, political, and social systems during the War Between the States. This landmark work is essential for every Civil War library. Book Excerpts CONTENTS
Politics, Society, and Economics Confederates and Yankees in Occupied New Orleans, 1862-1865 by Gerald M. Capers, Jr. Who Won the Secession Election in Louisiana? by Charles B. Dew Tragedy on Buzzard's Prairie by David C. Edmonds Friction in New Orleans: General Butler versus the Spanish Consul by Clifford L. Egan African-American Music and Muskets in Civil War New Orleans by Mary Ellison A Strategic Railroad: The New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern in the Civil War by Lawrence E. Estaville, Jr. John A. Stevenson: Confederate Adventurer by Judith F. Gentry White Gold: The Confederate Government and Cotton in Louisiana by Judith F. Gentry Patriotism Frustrated: The Native Guards of Confederate Natchitoches by Gary B. Mills "To Come Forward and Aid in Putting Down This Unholy Rebellion": The Officers of Louisiana's Free Black Native Guard During the Civil War Era by Manoj K. Joshi and Joseph P. Reidy The Free Market of New Orleans, 1861-1862 by Mary Elizabeth Massey Alien Neutrality and the Red River Campaign: A Study of Cases Heard Before the International Claims Commission by Gary B. Mills Alexandria, Louisiana: A "Confederate" City at War with Itself by Gary B. Mills The Operations of Captain N. A. Birge, Confederate Quartermaster at Monroe, Louisiana, 1862-1863 by James L. Nichols The Black Family in Transition: Louisiana, 1860-1865 by C. Peter Ripley Louisiana and Secession by Charles P. Roland Louisiana Clergy and the Confederate Army by Sidney J. Romero The Wartime Administration of Governor Henry W. Allen by Amos E. Simpson and Vincent Cassidy Shreveport, Louisiana: 1861-1865; From Secession to Surrender by Perry A. Snyder Discontent in Confederate Louisiana by Ethel Harris Taylor States Rights in Confederate Louisiana by Ethel Harris Taylor Slavery in Louisiana During the Civil War by Joe Gray Taylor Free Negroes and the Freedmen: Black Politics in New Orleans During the Civil War by Ted Tunnell Extinguishing the Lights: The Teche District by Carol Wells Extinguishing the Lights: 1861 by Carol Wells The Union Defends the Confederacy: The Fighting Printers of New Orleans by Billy H. Wyche Demands of the New Orleans Free Colored Population for Political Equality, 1862-1865 by Donald E. Everett Dennis Haynes and His "Thrilling Narrative of the Sufferings of... the Martyrs of Liberty of Western Louisiana" by Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr. The New Orleans German Colony in the Civil War by Robert T. Clark, Jr. State Aid for Indigent Soldiers and Their Families in Louisiana, 1861-1865 by William Frank Zornow Trials and Tribulations: American Missionary Association Teachers and BlackEducation in Occupied New Orleans, 1863-1864 by Patricia Brady Difficulties of Civil War Sugar Planting in Louisiana by Charles P. Roland "I Would Rather Be Among the Comanches:" The Military Occupation of Southwest Louisiana, 1865 by Michael G. Wade Book Reviews
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 Hardcover, 446 pages
ISBN: 1887366520 $40.00 |