150-years-ago -- Natchitoches' Augustine Guards cavalry, infantry companies saluted

Melrose Plantation on Cane River 16 miles south of  Natchitoches was owned
by Henry and Hypolite Hertzog from 1847 to 1881. Henry Hertzog organized the
Augustine Guards, made up of "free men of color," in 1861 to defend their
homeland. Hypolite Hertzog served as a private in Company G, 3rd Louisiana
Cavalry. There was a Private H. Hertzog who served in Company G & F, 30th
Louisiana Infantry.  (Library of  Congress)

Natchitoches Union
December 26, 1861
(Excerpt from UT Texas Digital Archives)

Augustine Guards
(Translated from French)
    We had the pleasure of attending last Sunday the maneuvers performed by the cavalry squadron of Augustine Guards, and the company of infantry. These two military corps are exclusively composed of free men of color. As we said a few months ago, Mr. Henry Hertzog who took the initiative to organize people who can serve the country loyally and effectively.

     Meeting in the fields for their maneuvers, the two companies began their evolutions. The squadron of cavalry, so ably taught by Dr. Burdin was wonderful in overall accuracy. The firm and rhythmic command of the captain and officers, the intelligent zeal brought by the soldiers, and the excellent horses ridden by the squadron, all contributed to amaze the public who had come to attend these maneuvers. For us, who have often witnessed in Europe cavalry maneuvers, we admired how, in such a short time, these men were able to achieve this degree of perfection.
     The infantry company, formed well for the needs of the various drills, but we are convinced that before long, their maneuvers will run with as much precision as the cavalry.
      Let us hasten to add, before concluding, that cavalry and infantry patrols are excellent at the coast, and help to keep the peace. This fine military demonstration is enough to bring congratulations to both companies for their valuable organization.

Editorial on French Language
(same issue of Natchitoches Union)
      We have always regarded the provision of the Constitution for the publication of the laws of the State in  French as well as in English as wise and beneficent, nor do we consider it proper to dispense with the publication in both languages of those documents on which legislation is based.  It is well known that a large, influential and intelligent portion of the citizens of Louisiana speak and read French.  The publication of numerous journals in that language in Louisiana and its general and almost exclusive use by many thousands of our inhabitants, prove sufficiently the necessity and propriety of printing public documents as well as laws in their own cherished, beautiful and cultivated vernacular tongue.  When the French Creoles (then a majority) combined with other races in erecting what was once a French colony into a sovereign State, it was no part of the bargain that the language of their households, their churches and their schools should be proscribed and gradually extinguished.  Their baptismal benedictions are pronounced in French.  Their devotional services are uttered in French.  They have given their marriage vows in the tongue their mothers taught them in childhood and heard in that language the solemn burial service of parents and kindred.  It seems invidious, illiberal and unjust to compel them to read public documents, printed in part at their expense, in a language often difficult and oftener uncongenial.

It may have been in a field like this on Melrose Plantation that the Augustine
Guards held the maneuvers in December 1861. (Library of  Congress)

150--Years-Ago ---------- Merry Christmas 1861

The Richmond Daily Dispatch
December 24, 1861

Christmas week

Christmas in the Sunny South.
(Library of Congress)

          The holiday season is about commencing, and the usual anticipations are indulged by the juveniles. The annual visit of Santa Claus, they argue, cannot be prevented by the blockade, for he comes by a route over which no Lincolnites has dominion, and where no Yankee ship can sail. Christmas this year may lack somewhat of its accustomed merriment. Indeed, there are some who affect to believe that there should be none at all; that Christmas day should be no happier or better than any other day; that there should be no roast beef, nor plum pudding, nor egg- nogg, nor good cheer of any description — and all because we are in the midst of a war, and some of our dear friends are away in the camp or the field, and cannot sit down with us at the festive board. We think such persons mistake themselves; or, if they do not, we are sorry for them. Surely we may have our pleasures at home as heretofore, relieved though they may be of excess. We can pledge the cup of kindness to the boys far away, who will be all the happier for the good wishes and tender thoughts around the family hearthstone, for which the busy whirl and work of life but seldom leaves a pause. It is pleasant to remember the times which have been, and to gather up all the kindly memories lying with them. It is pleasant, by some word or act, to remind our absent friends that they are not forgotten; and there is something in the great and general holiday that summons back the spirits of those we love, and makes them to be present with us. We can therefore afford to be happy in the Christmas time, and we would advise none to restrict their enjoyment except by the bounds of decency and reason. There is no more harm now than heretofore in extending the old English greeting--


I wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy new year;
A pocket full of money
And a cellar full of beer!

          In our perambulations about the city we have noticed evidences of extensive preparations for Christmas. Housekeepers were uncommonly solicitous at yesterday's market about the size of the turkeys and the soundness of the eggs; the confectioners have been busy with holiday "fixins" for a week past; and the boys are securing all the pop-crackers they can lay their hands on, in spite of the high prices. It looks very much like everybody was going in for a gay old time; and we have no doubt that all who choose to get tipsy will do so, although the man who keeps right side up will have the least to regret after it is all over.

150-Year-Ago -- Col. B.F. Terry Killed in Skirmish at Woodsonville, Ky.

Col. Benjamin Franklin Terry
8th Texas Cavalry

      WOODSONVILLE, Ky. - Colonel  Benjamin Franklin Terry, commander of the 8th Texas Cavalry, better known as Terry's Texas Rangers, was killed in action this day, December 17, 1861, in a skirmish with the 32nd Indiana Infantry at Woodsonville, Kentucky.
     Ironically, Terry was killed in his native state, having been born in Russellville, Kentucky  on February 18, 1821. He moved with his family to Brazoria County, Texas in 1833 or 34. He married Mary Bingham in 1841 and the couple had three sons and three daughters. In 1851, Terry formed a partnership with William J. Kyle to build the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway from Harrisburg and Houston to the Brazos River. Terry was a member of the Texas Secession Convention in  1861 and was one of the senior officers that disarmed federal troops at Brazos Santiago in June of that year. His first service to the Confederate Army was as a volunteer aid to Brig. Gen. James Longstreet, with the rank of colonel, and took part in the First Battle of Manassas on 21 July 1861. Terry  and Thomas S. Lubbock were authorized by the War Department to raise a cavalry regiment in Texas and they formed the Rangers with 1,170 men in August of 1861.
     His men  were sworn into Confederate service in September and designated as the 8th Texas Cavalry in November. There was no uniformity of dress of the men at first. They wore clothing of red, blue, green and yellow, with sombreros, felt hats and caps. On their way to Virginia, they were diverted to Bowling Green, Kentucky where they joined Brigadier General Thomas Hindman's division of General Albert S. Johnston's army. The 8th Texas and Mississippi artillery were directed to destroy a bridge  over the Green River south of  Woodsonville. The Texans collided with the 32nd Indiana, a unit made up of German immigrants, and a sharp skirmish ensued. The Rangers charged three times before they were repulsed. Both sides withdrew from the battlefield. Colonel Terry was among the Confederate dead.
    The regiment changed it's name to Terry's Texas Rangers to honor their fallen commander. Terry's body was sent to Nashville, Tennessee where the legislature adjouned to excort the remains to the state capitol where it lay in state. Terry's remains also were given honors in New Orleans and Houston. The governor of Texas said of Terry, "no braver man ever lived-no truer patriot ever died." He was buried in Glenwood Cemetery  in Houston. Terry County was named in his honor.
     Terry's Texas Rangers went on to become one of the hardest fighting regiments in the war. It was assigned to Wheeler's, Wharton's and T. Harrison brigades. Its battle honors also include Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga,  the Knoxville campaign, the Atlanta campaign. It also fought in defense of Savannah and the Carolinas toward the end of the war, and it surrendered with about 30 men on April 26, 1865.
     Other field officers of ther regiment included Colonels Gustave Cook, Thomas Harrison, Thomas S. Lubbock, and John A. Wharton; lieutenant colonels Samuel P. Christian, Marcus L. Evans, Stephen C. Ferrill and John G. Walker; majors William R. Jarmon and Leander M. Rayburn.

James Francis Miller was a veteran of
Terry's Texas Rangers when this photo
was taken while he was a Member of the
U.S. Congress from 1883-1887. He served
as private in Company I and was in all four
years of the war. He was born in 1830 in
South Carolina and practiced law in Gonzales, Texas.
He was the first president of the Texas Bankers' Association.
Miller died in 1902 and is buried in Masonic
Cemetery in Gonzales, Texas.
(Library of Congress)

150-Years-Ago -- HOME FRONT NEWS

A Southern refugee family.

(Exceprts from UT-Tyler Digital Archives)

NATCHEZ DAILY COURIER, December 14, 1861, p. 1, c. 1

To Ladies of Adams County!
Can we withstand such an Appeal?

                                                                                                Nashville, Dec. 4, 1861.

My Dear Young Friend--I write to you to get your interest in sending us Hospital supplies.  I know how much you have done, and I know by experience that cotton planters have no money; but you have shirts, drawers, towels and handkerchiefs, and a thousand things that will be very acceptable.  At first, we thought we would only appeal to the people of Tennessee, but since Nashville has been made the great Hospital, we will be forced to ask aid of our friends in the other States.  We have sick men here from Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  In our Hospital there are at least 2000 sick; measles and the consequences and typhoid fever are the prevailing diseases.
                You would not know my beautiful drawing rooms--mirrors and chandeliers in bags, furniture and carpets removed to the garret, and ten sick men lying there--four hovering between life and death.
                I have slept on a sofa in my library for four nights, with an alarm clock at my head to wake me every two hours.  Many other houses in the city are in the same situation."
                The above is an extract from a letter, received by a lady in this county, from one of the Vice Presidents of the Soldiers' Relief Society of Nashville, Tenn.  The recipient of this letter publishes it, hoping that the already liberal women of Adams county will send all the Hospital stores, such as mattresses, comforts, sheeting, pillows, whiskey, brandy, sage, &c., they can spare, to care of Mr. Jas. Carradine, Main street.  There they will be packed and sent by the first of January, to Nashville, in the name of the Ladies of Adams county.  Let us do all we can for our poor distressed soldiers--maybe we will be but helping our own. 

NATCHEZ DAILY COURIER, December 17, 1861, p. 1, c. 1
          Help One Another.  Every one connected with the printing business is laboring under the disagreeable trouble of procuring a sufficiency of paper.  Clean rags are scarce for the supply of paper-mills.  Now our planters can help us out, if they will but save and bale their refuse cotton.  We understand the paper-mills will pay three cts. per pound for this article, and that a market can be found at B. S. Tappan's, Vicksburg, Miss. at the same price.  Let our planters consider this matter, and help us to obtain more paper and of larger size and better quality. 

150-Years-Ago --- Rose Greenhow's Letter of Defiance from Jail

The Richmond Daily Dispatch
December 11, 1861

The cowardly Despotism at Washington.


[From the Richmond Whig, Dec. 3.]

     Through the instrumentality of one of Seward's confidential agents, we have come in possession of the following letter, addressed by a brave and noble woman, to Lincoln's vizier. We are given to understand, that the perusal of it was not without visible effect upon that impersonation of all human villainy. The twitchings of the muscles, and his agitated manner betrayed, not perhaps, any compunction, but a sense of personal insecurity at the hands of the avenging Nemesis.
     This letter is the most graphic sketch, yet given to the world, of the cruel and dastardly tyranny, which the Yankee Government has established at Washington. Russell, in one of his letters to the London Times, mentions the expedient of " arrest by telegraph," which has been introduced by Seward, as something new and appalling, and outstripping all the ingenious contrivances of all the despotisms that ever existed. But the incarceration and torture of helpless women and the outrages heaped upon them, as detailed in this letter, will more shock manly natures, and stamp the Lincoln dynasty everywhere with undying infamy.
     The letter tells its own tale, and may be relied on as a true copy of the original, in the hands of Wm. H. Seward:

Mrs. Rose Greenhow, Confederate Patriot
(Library of Congress)

Washington, Nov. 17, 1861, 398 16th st.
To the Hon. Wm. H. Seward, secretary of State:

Sir:
     For nearly three months I have been confined, a close prisoner, shut out from air and exercise, and denied all communion with family and friends
     "Patience is said to be a great virtue," and I have practiced it, to my utmost capacity of endurance.
     I am told, sir, that upon your ipse dixit, the fate of citizens depends, and that the sign manual of the ministers of Louis the Fourteenth and Fifteenth, was not more potential in their day, than that of the Secretary of State in 1861.
     I, therefore, most respectfully submit, that on Friday, August 23d, without warrant or other show of authority, I was arrested by the Detective Police, and my house taken in charge by them: that all my private letters, and papers of a lifetime, were read and examined by them: that every law of decency was violated in the search of my house and person, and by the surveillance over me.
     We read in history, that the poor Maria Antoinette had a paper torn from her bosom by lawless hands, and that even a change of linen had to be effected in sight of her brutal captors. It is my sad experience to record even more revolting outrages than that, for during the first days of my imprisonment, whatever necessity forced me to seek my chamber, a detective stood sentinel at the open door. And thus for a period of seven days I, with my little child, was placed absolutely at the mercy of men without character or responsibility; that during the first evening, a portion of these men became brutally drunk, and boasted in my hearing of the "nice times" they expected to have with the female prisoners; and that rude violence was used towards a colored servant girl during that evening, the extent of which I have not been able to learn. For any show of decorum afterwards practiced towards me, I was indebted to the Detective called Captain Dennis.
     In the careful analysis of my papers I deny the existence of a line I had not a perfect right to have written, or to have received. Freedom of speech and of opinion is the birthright of Americans, guaranteed to us by our Charter of Liberty — the Constitution of the United States. I have exercised my prerogative, and have openly avowed my sentiments. During the political struggle, I opposed your Republican party with every instinct of self-preservation. I believed your success a virtual nullification of the Constitution, and that it would entail upon us all the direful consequences which have ensued. These sentiments have doubtless been found recorded among my papers, and I hold them as rather a proud record of my sagacity.
     I must be permitted to quote from a letter of yours, in regard to Russell, of the London Times, which you conclude with these admirable words: "Individual errors of opinion may be tolerated, so long as good sense is left to combat them." By way of illustrating theory and practice — here am I, a prisoner in sight of the Executive Mansion, in sight of the Capital, where the proud statesmen of our land have sung their pæans to the blessings of our free institutions. Comment is idle.--Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, every right pertaining to the citizen has been suspended by what, I suppose, the President calls a "military necessity." A blow has been struck, by this total disregard of all civil rights, against the present system of Government, far greater in its effects than the severance of the Southern States. Our people have been taught to condemn the supremacy of the law, to which all have hitherto bowed, and to look to the military power for protection against its decrees. A military spirit has been developed, which will only be subordinate to a Military Dictatorship. Read history, and you will find that the causes which bring about a revolution rarely predominate at its close, and no people have ever returned to the point from which they started. Even should the Southern States be subdued and forced back into the Union, (which I regard as impossible, with a full knowledge of their resources,) a different form of Government will be found needful to meet the new developments of national character. There is no class of society, no branch of industry, which this change has not reached, and the dull, plodding, methodical habits of the poor can never be resumed.
     You have held me sir, to a man's accountability, and I therefore claim the right to speak on subjects usually considered beyond a woman's ken, and which you may class as "errors of opinion." I offer no excuse for this long digression as a three months imprisonment, without formula of law, gives me authority for occupying even the precious moments of a Secretary of State.
     My object is to call your attention to the fact that, during this long imprisonment, I am yet ignorant of the causes of my arrest; that my house has been seized and converted into a prison by the Government; that the valuable furniture it contained has been abused and destroyed; that during some period of my imprisonment I have suffered greatly for want of proper and sufficient food. Also, I have to complain that, more recently, a woman of bad character, recognised as having been seen on the streets of Chicago as such by several of the guard, calling herself Mrs. Onderdonk, was placed here in my house, in a room adjoining mine.
     In making this exposition, I have no object of appeal to your sympathies. If the justice of my complaint, and a decent regard for the world's opinion do not move you, I should but waste time to claim your attention on any other score.
     I may, however, recall to your mind, that but a little while since, you were quite as much proscribed by public sentiment here for the opinions and principles you held, as I am now for mine.
     I could easily have escaped arrest, having had timely warning. I thought it possible that your statesmanship might present such a proclamation of weakness to the world, as even the fragment of a once great Government turning its arms against the breasts of women and children. You have the power, sir, and may still further abuse it. You may prostrate the physical strength, by confinement in close rooms, and insufficient food-- you may subject me to harsher, ruder treatment than I have already received, but you cannot imprison the soul. Every cause worthy of success has had its martyrs. The words of the heroine Corday are applicable here: "C'est le crime qui fait la houte et non pas l'echafaude." My sufferings will afford a significant lesson to the women of the South, that sex or condition is no bulwark against the surging billows of the "irrepressible conflict."
     The "iron heel of power" may keep down, but it cannot crush out, the spirit of resistance in a people armed for the defence of their rights; and I tell you now, sir, that you are standing over a crater whose smothered fires in a moment may burst forth.
     It is your boast that thirty-three bristling fortifications now surround Washington.--The fortifications of Paris did not protect Louis Philippe when his hour had come.
     In conclusion, I respectfully ask your attention to this my protest, and have the honor to be, &c., &c., &c.
Rose O. N. Greenhow.

TEXAS SCV FILES SUIT OVER LICENSE PLATE DENIAL

Texas SCV Files Suit for Tag

Texas Sons Of Confederate Veterans
PRESS RELEASE TEXAS DIVISION SCV
          Today, December 8th, 2011 a complaint is being filed in pursuant of 42 U.S.C. §1983 to vindicate the rights secured to the “Texas Division Sons of Confederate Veterans” by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
          The Texas SCV is a non-profit organization that works diligently to preserve the memory and reputation of the Confederate soldiers, emphasizing the virtues of their fight for the preservation of liberty and freedom. Like many other non-profit organizations in Texas, the Texas SCV sought from the State of Texas, through the Department Motor Vehicles Board, approval of a specialty license plate, both to raise awareness of their endeavors and to raise additional money to fund their activities.
         This action is in regards to the recent denial by the of the specialty license application presented to the Department of Motor Vehicles Board by the Texas Division Sons of Confederate Veterans.
         Currently, the SCV has specialty automobile license plates available to vehicle drivers in Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, Maryland, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
         The Texas SCV initially applied for a specialty license plate in Texas with the Department of Transportation, the proper agency at the time, in August 2009. That application was denied by the Department of Transportation. In 2009, the Texas Legislature amended the Transportation Code to provide that the Department of Motor Vehicles, rather than the Department of Transportation, was charged with issuing specialty license plates. The license plate function moved to the new Department of Motor Vehicles on November 1, 2009. At the time the Texas SCV reapplied with the new governing department, to hopefully have a specialty plate in advance of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, April 12, 2011.
          The official public comments were heavily in favor of the Texas SCV’s application for a specialty plate. Following commentary by both proponents and opponents, the Board rejected the SCV plate at the hearing by an 8-0 vote without any discussion. At the same hearing, the Buffalo Soldiers plate, without any discussion, was approved by a 5-3 vote.
         Since the Department of Motor Vehicle Board has been charged with issuing specialty license plates, the Sons of the Confederate Veterans plate is the first, and only, to be rejected.Through the members of the Department of Motor Vehicles Board, the State of Texas has discriminated against the Texas SCV based on the ideas and message that the Texas SCV supports, in clear violation of the First Amendment.
         The Board seeks to bar the Texas SCV from expressing their viewpoint while allowing all other groups to express their viewpoint: this type of restriction is exactly the type which the First Amendment is designed to erase. The only guideline that the Transportation Code has to offer, which the Board referenced as its reason for rejecting the plate, is that the Board can reject a plate “if the design might be offensive to any member of the public…” This, however, cannot be the standard. It is vague and indeterminable. Essentially, it is no standard at all to say that the Board can discriminate based upon a viewpoint if such speech is offensive to anyone.
       The First Amendment clearly protects controversial speech. Additionally, even if simply being “offensive to any member of the public” was sufficient to allow for rejection, the State has approved numerous plates that are “offensive to any member of the public.” In fact, the plate approved the very same day as the Texas SCV plate was rejected – the Buffalo Soldier plate – is offensive to Native Americans because the all-black cavalry helped fight Native Americans in the Indian Wars from 1867-1888. Accordingly, the Texas SCV seeks appropriate injunctive relief, requiring the State of Texas to approve the Texas SCV’s application and implement the specialty plate.
Granvel J. Block
Commander Texas Division
Sons of Confederate Veterans

150-years-ago -- LOUISIANA CHASSEURS RECEIVE FLAG

NATCHITOCHES UNION, November 28, 1861

An  unidentified soldier (unit
unknown)  wearing
a Chasseurs à pied style uniform.
(Blog author's collection)

Presentation of a Flag
to the Chasseurs a Pied.


          NATCHITOCHES, La. - Last Friday at nine o'clock A. M. the "Chasseurs à pied" assembled in full uniform at their usual place of rendezvous. There was a threefold object in this military turn out—a flag presentation, a religious service and the benediction of the flag. The company was out in full force, and their appearance and bearing was quite martial.
           At a quarter past nine, the company took of the line of march, followed by a detachment of the Natchitoches Guards, and halted opposite the dwelling of Mad. Alexander Buard, which was the place selected for the presentation of the flag. On their arrival, Capt. J. B. Cloutier formed the "Chasseurs à pied", and "Natchitoches Guards" in line of battle, and Lieutenant J. C. Janin presented the flag, and pronounced from the balcony, the following address, which was much applauded.

Gentlemen,

          "I sincerely regret that Mad. Janin, to whose effects, we are principally indebted for our flag, has been deprived of the pleasure of presenting it to you in person. You will be kind enough, gentlemen, to excuse her; her mourning as a sister is too recent, and the wound that she has received with so much courage, is yet bleeding.
            "It was my duty to replace her and accept this service, of confiding to the bravery of the "Chasseurs à pied" of Natchitoches, the colors which symbolize the cause of right against force, that sacred cause, which we are all called on to protect, even to the shedding of blood.
          "Gentlemen, I am no orator, and know no rhetoric but that of the heart, which consists more in action than word; and with my whole heart I tell you, that all of us whether children of Louisiana by birth, or born on the soil of France, claim to have the same blood running in our veins, the French blood. It was the civilizing genius of France, which patiently conquered from barbarism, the soil which now bears us; it was the persevering industry of our fathers which rendered it fertile, and for those Frenchmen who ascend the Mississippi and the Red River, explored by their ancestors, Louisiana is still their country. Here, in Natchitoches, the oldest French colony in Louisiana, Frenchmen and Creoles are equally at home.
          "You understood this, gentlemen, when under creole officers, chosen by yourselves, as more immediately representing the local interests of the country, you spontaneously offered yourselves, to take a noble part in its defence, and to lend your aid, and devote yourselves to the success of a cause which is common to all.
          "Born protectors of our wives, our children, our servants and our property, armed by the State against invasion from abroad, we will even, Gentlemen, if circumstances require it, follow our leaders, and bear our flag with honor to any point of our territory where our independence may be threatened, for this, we will defend everywhere against every assault, and at any price, even to the pouring out of our blood."

Mr. Ernest Le Gendre, selected by the company to answer, expressed himself as follows:

Lieutenant—
           "Selected by the company of "Chasseurs à Pied" to answer your address at the presentation of this flag, I feel that my mission is almost useless, after the noble and generous words which you have just addressed to us. What more, indeed, can I say, than to retrace those so truly french and patriotic sentiments which you have invoked.
          "In seeing these noble colors which are to serve as our standard, they recall to us the tricolored standards which our fathers and yours rendered illustrious on the battle fields of Europe. History tell us, that wherever those colors were displayed, they marshaled to the combat, the defenders of just and civilizing causes.
          "If we have spontaneously taken arms for the defence of our domestic hearths, it is because here, everything recalls to us the memories of our absent country, and our sympathy for Louisiana is that which exists among the members of the same family.
          "If we applaud the successes of Manassas and of Oak Hill, it is because the colors of Austerlitz and Magenta have found twin sisters on the soil of the American Confederation.
         "Thank you, for your good words, which we rarely hear—when you said in invoking the testimony of history; that Frenchmen and Creoles were at home here. We will not forget these words. But the "Chasseurs à Pied" have no other ambition than that of receiving the hospitality of their creole brethren, and rendering themselves worthy of it.
          "We regret, sincerely, that Mad. Janin was not able to present this flag in person, but we know that this symbol of her country in recalling a victory to her mind, would also caused her sadly to remember the fate of a beloved brother who fell on the field of glory and of victory.
           "We comprehend well the delicate duty confided to us, of protecting our and your own wives, children, servants and property. To this mission, we will not be recreant, and if—but God forbid it—the danger should increase, and the soil of Louisiana be desecrated by the Legions of the North, we will under the aegis of these noble colors serve as a rampart to those whose safety has been confided to us."
           After these two addresses, Mr. Joseph Janin was militarily recognized, as 1st Lieutenant of the company of Chasseurs à Pied, and Mr. Jegon du Laz as Corporal.
          At ten o'clock, the Chasseurs à Pied marched to the Cathedral Church of Natchitoches, where a military Mass was celebrated. At the moment when the host was elevated, the command, on your knees, was given, and executed with complete precision, which was rendered still more impressive, by the blue uniform and shining bayonets.
           Bishop Martin then spoke, and at the conclusion of his address, thanked the "Chasseurs à pied," for the noble initiative they had taken in the defence of our domestic hearths. Then followed the benediction of the flag. This is a ceremony, the institution of which, dates as far back as the ninth century. Formerly it took place amid a demonstration of every species of military pomp. In our day it still preserves a character truly religious, for the flag is and always will be the symbol of our country.
           The company then left the church and marched through several streets of the town, with the flag of the Confederation in the centre. The flag was then conveyed to the dwelling of the Captain where it was placed under a true guard of honor, as it was placed under the protecting aegis of the ladies. Let us not forget to mention, that Major Johnson the presumptive heir of the epaulets of Captain J. B. Cloutier, swore from the balcony that he also, would protect the colors under which he was born.
           About three o'clock, the ranks were broken and the soldier again became a citizen.