Question of the Week: 5/16-5/22/22

In your opinion which Gulf State (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida) has the most interesting Civil War history? Why?



13 Responses to Question of the Week: 5/16-5/22/22

  1. I know this might not be the exact answer for this question but I would love to hear more about the Civil War history of Texas.

  2. I’d say Louisiana because:
    (1) First Afro-American Regiments (with Black officers no less, but not for long)
    (2) First fall of a Major Confederate city
    (3) Red River Campaign

  3. Alabama for various reasons. Montgomery, AL has been labeled “The Cradle of the Confederacy”. It was the first capitol of the Confederacy. The Constitution the state adopted protected slavery, but also offered some legal protections to slaves themselves. Before the firing on Fort Sumter, Alabama’s governor ordered the seizing of various Union assets, including a couple of forts.

  4. Louisiana. Raphael Semmes’ first sortie out to the blue water is from New Orleans. Farragut’s running of the forts. New Orleans falls and is occupied. Battle of Baton Rouge chastens Ben Butler. First attempts at Reconstruction and first AA military units organized. First AA units used in battle at Port Hudson and Milliken’s Bend ( a couple months before Battery Wagner). The key to the success of capturing Vicksburg was Louisiana. Mass, forced migration of slaves up the Red River and west into Texas. Bayou Teche and Red River campaigns that saw a lot of riverine, combined arms conflict and fought in a Garden of Eden like land. Trans-Mississippi surrenders at Shreveport.

    Mississippi has a shout though.

  5. I have fallen in love with Mississippi’s history over the past 18 months and have thoroughly enjoyed exploring it, from the Civil War through the Civil Rights movement. Although the state has had a tumultuous history, I admire the way it has prioritized preserving and telling its history–good, bad, and ugly.

  6. Louisiana: (1) Naval warfare during the attack on New Orleans and again in attempting to pass Port Hudson; (2) ongoing counter-insurgency warfare; (3) the battle of Irish Bend; and (4) the Port Hudson campaign, too often overlooked in Civil War historiography.

  7. Florida the unwritten history of the Confederacy. Florida supplied 60,000 head of cattle. It’s capital of Tallahassee was never taken during the war. USCT troops were very active in Florida.

  8. Texas. “Most Interesting”, how about just very interesting. Why? The Union Naval Blockade had stymied CSA exportation of cotton. Texas looked like the only way to get the cotton out–through Laredo to Mexico and the French (who occupied much of Mexico at the time).

  9. Mississippi, because of the intersection of army and navy actions, the maturity of Grant, the rise of Rosecrans, the rides of Grierson, Forrest and Van Dorm, and the rise and retirement of Jefferson Davis, on coastal regions that were occupied by USCT.

  10. Alabama, Fort Morgan, Fort Gaines, Spanish Fort, Fort Blakeley, battle for Mobile Bay, Battle of the City of Mobile, all the activity in northern Alabama not to mention Montgomery the first capital of the Confederacy …

  11. Mississippi. Of the states named, probably contributed the most leaders to a treasonous cause that ruled by the bullwhip, Bowie knife and pistol, and helped lead armies that killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers.

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