The Desperate Struggle: Louisiana Civil War Compendium: A Military History of Campaigns & Battles 1861-1865
This book is a guide for the major Civil War campaigns and battles in Louisiana, 1861-1865. The Trans-Mississippi Theater of the Civil War has drawn plenty of attention from scholars who have studied the campaigns and battles that took place in Missouri, Arkansas, and the coastal expeditions against Texas. The historians who have studied the campaigns in Louisiana, one of the southern most of the Trans-Mississippi locations, are a numerous and a tenacious group. Until now, however, the last work to cover the war in the whole state, rather than single campaigns or battles, was published in 1963. This guide uses a state regional approach to understanding the conduct of the war. The Mississippi River and the many other waterways played a great role in the clash between Confederates and Union forces. The city of New Orleans, the large number of slaves, plain folk farms across the hill country, and both sugar and cotton plantations provided a very different backdrop for war here. Along with the terrain, leadership and command decisions made the difference between victory or defeat. This compendium guide is excellent for taking along on visits to find Louisiana's lost battlegrounds.