Louisiana Military Records

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The site U.S. Wars list conflicts dating from earliest to 1865. Wars covered that are available are:

Search Revolutionary War 1775-83 Service Records, Rejected Pensions, Loyalists Records, 1775-1783 Pay Rolls, Courts-Martial, Officers, Pension Index, 1841 Pensioner Census

Below is a list of online resources for Louisiana in the Revolutionary War.

• Louisiana Revolutionary War Books at Amazon.com
• Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83
• Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M881. Compiled service records of soldiers who served in the American Army during the Revolutionary War, 1775-1783
• Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, from NARA publication M804.

Search Civil War Soldiers, Service Records, Regiments, General Officers, Battle Summaries, Pension Index: 1861-1934, CSA Field Officers and the War of the Rebellion

More than 500 battles, engagements and skirmishes occurred here. As the South's largest city and major port, New Orleans was a primary target. Possession of the city was necessary for control of the Mississippi. New Orleans was also the site of large commercial, financial and industrial firms.

In April 1862, a Union fleet under Flag Officer David G. Farragut began operations against the Crescent City. Two old masonry forts - Jackson and St. Philip on the Mississippi River below New Orleans - were the city's first line of defense. After a brief bombardment failed to force the forts to surrender, Farragut's vessels steamed past them early on April 24 and destroyed the small Confederate fleet that supported the forts. Confederate troops evacuated New Orleans rather than submit to a bombardment. Without firing a shot, the city surrendered to Farragut, and Union troops under Gen. Benjamin F. Butler occupied New Orleans on May 1. The Confederacy had suffered a grievous blow. Lost were the major port, iron foundries, the financial center of the South, and, eventually, the Mississippi River. New Orleans served as a Union base for subsequent operations up the "Father of Waters."

Louisiana was open to invasion, but the Union high command directed its energies to the Mississippi River. When Baton Rouge fell to Farragut on May 7, the state capital was moved to Opelousas. After the union navy was turned back from Vicksburg in July 1862, the Confederates decided to try to retake Baton Rouge. On August 5, Confederates under General John C. Breckinridge (former U.S. vice-president and presidential candidate) attacked Union troops camped on the outskirts of town. Union troops were driven back to the levee where they were not protected by their gunboats. When the gunboat Arkansas did not arrive to drive the Union warships, Breckinridge's Confederates retreated to Port Hudson where they began erecting fortifications.

Breckinridge's attack frightened Gen. Butler. Anxious for New Orleans's safety, Union forces evacuated Baton Rouge on August 21, and it was not reoccupied until December 17 when Butler's successor, Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, arrived. This hiatus from August until December proved pivotal, allowing the Confederates to complete their river batteries and trenches at Port Hudson.

In October 1862, a Union force under Gen. Godfrey Weitzel conducted a destructive raid from Donaldsonville down Bayou Lafourche. On October 27, the Federals brushed aside a small Confederate army under Gen. Alfred Mouton in the Battle of Labadieville. Mouton's troops evacuated the region, falling back to the lower Bayou Teche. After occupying the area, Weitzel's men laid waste to the sugar industry along the Lafourche.

Military activities subsided until spring of 1863. Urged by the government in Washington, D.C., to attack the stronghold at Port Hudson, Banks and Farragut finally moved against the fortification. On the night of March 14, the Confederates turned back Farragut's naval attack. Banks realized Port Hudson could be claimed only with a lengthy siege. Before attempting this task, he decided to clear south Louisiana west of the Mississippi of Confederate troops that might threaten his supply lines on that river.

Gen. Richard Taylor's small Confederate army was entrenched at Fort Bisland on Bayou Teche. Banks moved most of his army to Brashear (now Morgan City) to attack Fort Bisland. After successfully holding their fortifications on April 12 and 13, Taylor's men were outflanked and had to retreat. On April 14, the Battle of Irish Bend allowed Taylor's army to escape capture. Banks' forces pursued the Confederates, capturing Opelousas and Alexandria and forcing the state capital to move one last time to Shreveport.

Acting in conjunction with Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's attack on Vicksburg, Mississippi, Banks turned from Alexandria to move against Port Hudson. The siege of Port Hudson ensued, lasting from May 23 to July 9, 1863, the longest siege in American military history.

Two unsuccessful Union assaults occurred May 27 and June 14. On May 27, black troops faced Confederates in battle for the first time and performed admirably. During the protracted siege, Confederates were forced to eat mules and horse meat and even rats, on occasion. They were said to prefer mule to horse. Vicksburg fell on July 4. When Confederate Gen Franklin Gardner received this news, he surrendered to Banks. Port Hudson was the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi. Now the river was completely under Union control and the Confederacy was split in two. Valuable supplies - primarily beef and salt - from the Trans-Mississippi states were cut off from Confederate armies in the east.

Through the fall and winter of 1863, Union forces along the Gulf of Mexico turned their attention to Texas. In Louisiana, Confederates were victorious in much of the occasional fighting. On September 29, Gen. Taylor's men surprised and routed a small union force in the Battle of Stirling Plantation. In October, the Federal campaign from Brashear to Opelousas was turned back, and on November 3, the Confederates won another victory at the Battle of Bayou Bourbeau.

In mid-March 1864, the Red River campaign was launched to drive Taylor's army from Louisiana and plant the Union flag in the interior of Texas. Taylor's outnumbered army retreated as Gen. Banks' superior forces pursued. At Mansfield, Taylor received reinforcements. On April 8, he attacked the nearby Union army and inflicted a severe defeat. During the night, Banks retreated to Pleasant Hill. Taylor attacked again the next day, April 9. The Battle of Pleasant Hill was a draw. These were the last important battles fought on Louisiana soil. Banks retreated to Alexandria and there his accompanying fleet became trapped when the waters of the Red River fell. On May 13, the vessels were freed by Bailey's Dam. Banks continued his retreat to New Orleans by was of Simmesport and Morganza. Taylor's success in the Red River Campaign delayed Union victory in the war by several months.

Only small skirmishes occurred in Louisiana after the Red River Campaign. As word of Robert E. Lee's surrender spread through Confederate camps in Louisiana in 1865, soldier morale fell. Demoralization continued as armies east of the Mississippi River surrendered. Men began deserting and going home. In mid-May, General Edmund Kirby Smith contacted Union Gen. Edward R.S. Canby to negotiate the surrender of the Trans-Mississippi Department. Terms were worked out and signed by Kirby Smith's subordinates on May 26, by which most of Louisiana's Confederate units had disbanded.

Rather than surrender, Kirby Smith, Governor Henry W. Allen, numerous military and civilian leader and hundreds of soldiers went into exile in Mexico.

In Louisiana, the war took a heavy toll, out of proportion to the extent of the fighting. Only three states suffered as much or more: Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina. Approximately one-fifth of the state's able-bodied white males and hundreds of black soldiers were killed in battle or died of disease. Thousands of whites and blacks were maimed or permanently disabled.

The end of slavery cost Louisiana over one-third of her assessed pre-war wealth. More than half the state's 1860 livestock had been killed or confiscated. And much other the countryside was desolated, with sugar plantations hit the hardest, losing close to $100 million without including the value of the slaves.

Overall, Louisiana emerged from the war with less than half its former wealth. In 1860, she ranked second in the nation and first in the South for per capita wealth. By 1880, she ranked 17th in the nation and last in the South. Louisiana entered the war wealthy. At its close she was ruined, devastated and poverty-stricken.

Most Louisiana Johnny Rebs marched off to war with their feet firmly planted in the clouds. They were ready for a fight and worried that it would all be over before they got to take part. But ordinary soldier hardships soon jolted such optimists back to reality.

The site www.mycivilwar.com has a list of unit and histories for Louisiana. Below is a list of online resources for Louisiana in the Civil War.

• Louisiana Civil War Books at Amazon.com
• Southern Claims Commission from the State of Louisiana (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings
• Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900 from the State of Louisiana (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Pension applications for service in the U.S. Army between 1861 and 1917, grouped according to the units in which the veterans served
• Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Louisiana (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Compiled service records of Confederate soldiers from Louisiana units, labeled with each soldier's name, rank, and unit, with links to revealing documents about each soldier
• Case Files of Applications from Former Confederates for Presidential Pardons ("Amnesty Papers"), 1865-67 from the State of Louisiana (The National Archives): NARA M1003. View, Print Copy & Save Original Applications for pardon submitted to President Andrew Johnson, 1865-67, by former Confederates excluded from earlier amnesty proclamations
• Louisiana Confederate Soldiers: This database constitutes 3 volumes of records of Louisiana Confederate soldiers and commands. This alphabetized roll contains over 120,000 records of individuals. It also provides a brief history of Louisiana's 982 companies in the Confederate army, making this database of interest to the thousands of descendants of Louisiana Confederate soldiers.

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To locate military records for any individual, it is essential to know when and where in the armed forces he or she served and whether that person served in the enlisted ranks or was an officer. (If you don’t have that identifying information, some potential solutions are discussed below.)
As in any research project, it is important to study carefully whatever is already known about the subject of interest. Families and communities frequently pass down stories of military heroes from generation to generation. In most cases, these stories retain some fact, but, with the passage of years and in the process of retelling, accuracy fades. At any rate, family stories should not be overlooked for clues at the start of a military search.

When and where did the individual live? Did the family keep evidence of military service? Certificates, letters, journals, diaries, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, photographs, medals, swords, and other memorabilia kept in private collections may provide the basic facts needed to begin searching in military record collections.

There are a number of public records that are potentially valuable in discovering the military history of a veteran. It has been a long-standing American tradition to foster patriotism by honoring local sons and daughters who have defended the ideals of their country. Hometown military heroes are frequently noted on public monuments, and local newspaper files may yield surprisingly detailed accounts of a community’s well-known and less-famous military personnel.

By far the most comprehensive study of military records and how to use them is found in James C. Neagles’s U.S. Military Records: A Guide to Federal & State Sources, Colonial America to the Present. Neagles’s guide addresses primary and secondary military sources and accessibility, including the following information-rich sources:

• Records of state militias and the National Guard
• Records of the army, navy, and other branches of the U.S. military
• Records of the military academies
• Post-service records
• Pensions
• Bounty-land grants
• Bonuses and family assistance
• Soldier’s homes
• Military burials
• Military installations
• Censuses of veterans
• Conscription
• Civilian affairs

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Creating a historical time line can be especially useful for determining if and when the subject might have served in the military. By compiling a chronological list of the known dates and places of residence of an individual from birth through adulthood, it is frequently easy to discover the possibility of military service. Was the individual the right age to be eligible for the draft or to serve voluntarily in the Civil War? Is it likely that the person served on the Northern rather than the Southern side, or vice versa? For records from the colonial period to more recent military engagements, the place of residence is key to finding an individual’s records.

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Commercial enterprises and historically oriented groups and institutions have regularly published local histories. As a rule, these histories will include glowing accounts of the area’s involvement in military activities. Some volumes provide biographical sketches of military leaders, while others attempt to list all of the community’s participants in various military conflicts. Locally focused histories have been published at various times for virtually every state and county in the United States. Do not overlook them as an important research aid. P. William Filby’s A Bibliography of American County Histories is a list of five thousand such sources.

In addition to the standard histories, local public libraries and historical societies usually preserve and make available other types of publications that document the military history of the geographical areas they serve. Historical agencies collect biographies, letters, diaries, journals, and all sorts of memorabilia from military units and servicemen and -women. The personal accounts found in some collections are a fascinating means of stepping back in time. Firsthand accounts afford a better understanding of the day-to-day drudgery, loneliness, fears, and satisfactions of military life.

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Cemeteries provide yet another local source of information regarding individuals who served in the armed forces. Almost every cemetery in the United States contains some evidence of military events and veterans. Cemetery records and grave markers frequently identify military dead by name, rank, and unit designation. If a man or woman died elsewhere while in the service, the body was frequently brought home for burial; cemetery records often note the place and date of death.

Court records are yet another potential source for identifying those who served in the military. Most counties formally recorded and indexed the names of their citizens who were discharged from the military. In some local courts, “military discharges” will be found indexed separately, and in others the military records may be oddly interspersed with deeds, naturalizations, or other categories of documents. The contents of military records may vary greatly from one courthouse to another. Some will provide biographical information, while others may simply list names and the event or names and date of certificate issue.

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Federal military documents that have been classified as archival material are in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration. Not all records created by military agencies are judged to be permanently valuable. Generally, only records of historical or administrative importance are kept.

A wonderful array of federal military records are available in major libraries and archives and through microfilm rental programs. (Heritage Quest, a division of AGLL, Inc., PO Box 329, Bountiful, UT 84011-0329, is a source of rental microfilms.) With sufficient identifying information, you may request a search of the registers of enlistments or the compiled military service records. The minimum information required for a search is (1) the soldier’s full name, (2) the war in which he or she served or period of service, and (3) the state from which he or she served. For the Civil War, you must also indicate whether the person served in Union or Confederate forces. A separate copy of the form must be used for military service, pension, and bounty-land warrant applications. Submit requests for information about individuals who served in the military before World War I on NATF form 80 (Order for Copies of Veterans Records). Write to the National Archives and Records Administration, General Reference Branch, Washington, DC 20408 to obtain copies of NATF form 80. Always ask for “all records” for an individual.

Make requests for information about U.S. Army officers separated from the service after 1912 on standard form 180 (Request Pertaining to Military Records) and send it to the Military Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63132.