Yankee Autumn in Acadiana: A Narrative of the Great Texas Overland Expedition through Southwestern Louisiana, October–December 1863 (2024 Edition)
by David C. Edmonds
Back in Print! With a new Foreword by Samuel C. Hyde Jr.
About the Book
IN THE DARK autumn of 1863, Union forces launched a massive overland invasion of southwestern Louisiana aimed at planting the Stars and Stripes in Confederate Texas. The swaggering men in blue were going to rout the Rebels from Louisiana and Texas, or so they boasted, and take on Napoleon III and Maximilian as well.
Through Patterson, Centerville, Franklin, and New Iberia, General Banks’s huge Army of the Gulf snaked along, frequently battling giant mosquitoes, alligators, and mysterious swamp fevers. Constantly harassed by small but effective bands of mounted Texans and guerrilla Louisianians, the invaders eventually crossed the gentle Acadian prairies through Royville (Youngsville), Cote Gelee (Broussard), and Vermilionville (Lafayette), where they were momentarily halted by the retreating Confederates. From Lafayette they plundered, straggled, and sometimes burned a path to Pont des Breaux (Breaux Bridge), Carencro, Grand Coteau, Opelousas, and Barre’s Landing on Bayou Courtableau.
With the defenders growing bolder, the political generals who headed the invading army seemed unable to decide which route to choose toward the Lone Star State. Meanwhile, the destruction and violence spread across the treeless prairies as far as Abbeville in the west and to St. Martinville and Fausse Pointe in the east. In short, the Great Texas Overland Expedition became a sad and tragic Yankee Autumn in Acadiana.
Praise for Yankee Autumn in Acadiana
“Edmonds’s book is one of the few books . . . specifically on the topic of the unfolding of the Civil War in what would later become Iberia Parish and surrounding areas. . . . It provides well-researched context for the experiences of the many enslaved Africans in southwest Louisiana. [Yankee Autumn] helps create an inclusive, rich, and truthful history of that period.” —Phebe Hayes, PhD, founder & president, the Iberia African American Historical Society
“This classic account of the Union army’s advance into Acadiana in the fall of 1863 belongs on every bookshelf in Louisiana. . . . Both the casual reader and discerning scholar will enjoy the detailed narrative and often dramatic descriptions of a failed campaign to subdue both Louisiana and invade Texas. . . . With its comprehensive notes, bibliography, and orders of battle, this work is both a starting point for any additional research and an excellent reference source for people, places, sites, and episodes in Civil War Louisiana.” —Henry O. Robertson, PhD, Louisiana Christian University
“In Yankee Autumn in Acadiana, David C. Edmonds demonstrates with commendable flair that there are indeed different and rewarding avenues of researching the Civil War, and this research allows him to present a fascinating account of an often-overlooked corner of the conflict.” —Steven E. Woodworth, author of Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861–1865
© 2024 University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press
Paperback | 6" x 9" | ISBN: 978-1-959569-14-5