Undertaken at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, and with poor planning, organization, and execution, no major operation during the war had less to recommend it. War Along the Bayous concentrates on the Louisiana portion of this ill-advised campaign that resulted in heavy losses and very nearly turned into a complete disaster for the Union.

The Union Army's Red River Campaign and Camden Expedition of 1864 were intended to drive the Confederates from Louisiana and Arkansas and to isolate Texas from the rest of the Confederacy. William Riley Brooksher details the Louisiana portion of this poorly executed and ultimately unsuccessful campaign. With a novelist's sense of drama, he vividly recounts the fierce clashes at Mansfield (Sabine Crossroads), Pleasant Hill, and Yellow Bayou, and the destruction of Natchitoches and Alexandria.

This book chronicles not only the remarkable military victory at Mansfield but the subsequent engagements that forced Union forces into an ignominious withdrawal.

Taking its title from General William Tecumseh Sherman's blunt description, this book is a fresh inspection of what was the Civil War's largest operation between the Union Army and Navy west of the Mississippi River. Maps & photos.

Vividly written and well researched by a noted historian of the period, this succinct history credits the Union Navy as an essential element in the northern victory. Neither ponderous nor hagiographic, the work presents characters and events that have been previously neglected and offers candid assessments of officers, men, and material. Originally published in 1990, when it was a Military History Book Club selection, the work is considered a must for Civil War buffs. It is an authoritative and gripping story of the battles waged. The author provides a rare look at the war fought by primitive northern gunboats drifting through Louisiana's muddy bayous, Yankee merchantmen captured by rebel privateers at sea, and Union ironclads subduing hotly defended Southern forts. Nor does William Fowler neglect the subtler sparrings behind the scenes: War Secretary Stanton and Navy Secretary Welles competing for Lincoln's favor and Welles's fierce duel of strategies with his Confederate counterpart, Stephen Mallory. Finally, the author describes the astonishing transformation of the Navy itself from a ragtag fleet of aging steamers and paddleboats to one of the most powerful waterborne forces in the world.

Through the Howling Wilderness is replete with in-depth coverage on the geography of the region, the Congressional hearings after the Campaign, and the Confederate defenses in the Red River Valley.

Riding With the 19th Texas Cavalry in the War West of the Mississippi 1862-1865 is the story of William Hardy Bennett’s Confederate military service as a Private in Co. B of the 19th Texas Cavalry Regiment during the War for Southern Independence and his experiences during Reconstruction that followed the war. He enlisted with the Mesquite Light Horse Militia in Dallas County, Texas on 8 January 1861 some one and a half months before the citizens of Texas ratified the State’s Ordinance of Secession. Some fourteen months later on 21 March 1862, he enlisted with Captain Allen Beard’s Company, Burford’s Texas Cavalry in Dallas, Texas to defend his family, Dallas County, and the State of Texas against a Yankee army determined to invade and destroy the State. Beard’s Company became Co. B of the 19th Texas Cavalry Regiment and was an important part of Colonel William Henry Parsons’ Texas Brigade that fought with distinction in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Hardy fought in some fifty engagements and was often in harm’s way, but he survived and returned to Dallas County, Texas after the war and prospered despite the economic and political problems that plagued the county during Reconstruction.

The Cajun coast of Louisiana is home to a way of life as unique, complex, and beautiful as the terrain itself. As award-winning travel writer Mike Tidwell journeys through the bayou, he introduces us to the food and the language, the shrimp fisherman, the Houma Indians, and the rich cultural history that makes it unlike any other place in the world. But seeing the skeletons of oak trees killed by the salinity of the groundwater, and whole cemeteries sinking into swampland and out of sight, Tidwell also explains why each introduction may be a farewell—as the storied Louisiana coast steadily erodes into the Gulf of Mexico. Part travelogue, part environmental exposé, Bayou Farewell is the richly evocative chronicle of the author's travels through a world that is vanishing before our eyes.

Recipient of a 2017 Book of the Year Award presented by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Shane K. Bernard's Teche examines this legendary waterway of the American Deep South. Bernard delves into the bayou's geologic formation as a vestige of the Mississippi and Red Rivers, its prehistoric Native American occupation, and its colonial settlement by French, Spanish, and, eventually, Anglo-American pioneers. He surveys the coming of indigo, cotton, and sugar; steam-powered sugar mills and riverboats; and the brutal institution of slavery. He also examines the impact of the Civil War on the Teche, depicting the running battles up and down the bayou and the sporadic gunboat duels, when ironclads clashed in the narrow confines of the dark, sluggish river. Describing the misery of the postbellum era, Bernard reveals how epic floods, yellow fever, racial violence, and widespread poverty disrupted the lives of those who resided under the sprawling, moss-draped live oaks lining the Teche's banks. Further, he chronicles the slow decline of the bayou, as the coming of the railroad, automobiles, and highways reduced its value as a means of travel. Finally, he considers modern efforts to redesign the Teche using dams, locks, levees, and other water-control measures. He examines the recent push to clean and revitalize the bayou after years of desecration by litter, pollutants, and invasive species. Illustrated with historic images and numerous maps, this book will be required reading for anyone seeking the colorful history of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. As a bonus, the second part of the book describes Bernard's own canoe journey down the Teche's 125-mile course. This modern personal account from the field reveals the current state of the bayou and the remarkable people who still live along its banks.

Murder strikes again in small-town Louisiana in the second Cajun Country cozy mystery full of Southern charm, spicy characters, and yummy food. B&B owner and sometimes-sleuth Maggie Crozat must use her artist’s eye to spot clues and solve a local murder mystery . . . The Crozats feared that past murders at Crozat Plantation B&B might spell the death of their beloved estate, but they’ve managed to survive the scandal. Now there's a trés bigger story in Pelican, Louisiana: the upcoming nuptials between Maggie Crozat’s nemesis: Police Chief Rufus Durand, and her co-worker, Vanessa Fleer. When everyone else refuses the job of being Vanessa’s Maid of Honor, Maggie reluctantly takes up the title and finds herself tasked with a long list of duties—the most important of which is entertaining Vanessa’s cousin, Ginger Fleer-Starke. But just days before the wedding, Ginger’s lifeless body is found on the bayou and the Pelican PD, as well as the Crozats, have another murder mystery on their hands. There’s a gumbo-potful of suspects, including an ex-Marine with PTSD, an annoying local newspaper reporter, and Vanessa’s own sparkplug of a mother. But when it looks like the investigation is zeroing in on Vanessa as the prime suspect, Maggie reluctantly adds keeping the bride-to-be out of jail to her list of Maid of Honor responsibilities in Body on the Bayou—Ellen Byron’s funny and engaging follow up to her critically acclaimed novel, Plantation Shudders.