Louisiana

Start: 1863-10-24

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Introduction

During the American Civil War, the Thirteenth Connecticut, part of Union General Nathaniel P. Banks’ forces, occupied Washington, then larger than the parish seat of Opelousas. Washington was, according to the historian John D. Winters in The Civil War in Louisiana

“squalid and dirty . . . [with] filth, ugly buildings, and its large number of black inhabitants.”

Winters reports that Banks’ men operated from Washington, Opelousas, New Iberia, and Alexandria in

“gathering cotton, vegetables, molasses, rum, sugar, saddles, bridles, horses, mules, cattle, corn, and sweet potatoes. Negroes were mounted and assisted in driving in the cattle and horses found hidden in the woods and swamps. Between eight and ten thousand bales of cotton were collected. It was estimated that the . . . region was stripped of legitimate forage valued at more than ten million dollars. . . . “

Order of Battle

Casualties

	Total	Killed	Wounded	Missing	Captured
Combined Forces

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