CONFEDERATE MEMORIAL DAY - AN OFFICIAL STATE HOLIDAY IN LOUISIANSA

The South's Defenders Monument
Lake Charles, Louisiana
(Photos by Mike Jones)

      June the Third, Confederate Memorial Day, is an official state holiday in Louisiana. It commemorates the 12,000 Louisianians who laid down their lives on the altar of Southern Independence between 1861 and 1865. It also pays tribute to the 66,000 Louisiana Confederates who defended their homes and families from ruthless invaders during the War for Southern Independence. The day is also the day of birth in 1808 of President Jefferson Davis.
      There were 982 military units organized in Louisiana for the war, including at least 400 that were state militia units. Most of the companies adopted colorful names, like the Baton Rouge Invincibles, Co. B, 9th Battalion Louisiana Infantry; Beauregard Fencibles, which became Co. K, 12th Louisiana Infantry; the Calcasieu Tigers, Co. I, 28th (Thomas') Louisiana Infantry; Confederate States Rangers, Co. K, 10th Louisiana Infantry; Crescent City Rifles, Co. B, 1st Battalion Louisiana Infantry; Confederate States Zouaves, the 1st Battalion (Coppens') Louisiana Zouaves and the 2nd Battalion (St. Leon Dupiere's) Louisiana Zouaves; and Tiger Rifles, Company B, 1st Battalion (Wheat's) Louisiana Infantry.

Pvt. Edmund Francis Jemison
of Co. C, 2nd Louisiana Infantry,
killed in action at the Battle of
Malvern Hill, Louisiana.
This is one of the most famous
images of the war. (Library of Congress)

      Louisiana was also the scene of over 500 hundred battles, skirmishes raids and campaigns during the war, including such battles as the Battles of Forts Jackson and St. Philip; the Battle of Baton Rouge; the Bayou Lafourche Campaign; the Bayou Teche Campaign; the Red River Campaign; the Siege of Port Hudson; the Battle of Mansfield; the Battle of Pleasant Hill; and small battles, such as the Battle of Calcasieu Pass; the Battle of Stirling Plantation; the Battle of Bayou Bourbeau; the Battle of Irish Bend; the Battle of Bisland Plantation; the Battle of Lafourche Crossing; and many others.
      Historic sites related to the War for Southern Independence are also numerous in Louisiana, including Forts Jackson and Saint Philip; Confederate Memorial Hall in New Orleans; Camp Moore Confederate Cemetery and Historic Site; Niblett's Bluff Park; Port Hudson State Historic Site; Young-Sanders Center for the Study of the War Between the States in Louisiana, in Franklin; Mansfield State Historic Site; and dozens of Confederate monuments, statues and plaques scattered around the state on courthouse lawns, cemeteries and city streets. The second largest collection of Confederate memorabilia in the world is at Confederate Memorial Hall in New Orleans. The Cabildo Museum in New Orleans also displays many Confederate artifacts, including one of the original Confederate battle flags sewed by the Cary Sisters and their cousin, and given to the top Confederate generals.
     Louisiana fielded such famous Confederate generals as P.G.T. Beauregard, Richard Taylor, Alfred Mouton, Henry Gray, and Henry Watkins Allen. General Allen also became the governor of Louisiana in the last two years of the war. Noted Southern historian Douglas Southall Freeman called Allen the greatest administrator in the Confederacy. Shreveport became the capital of Louisiana after Baton Rouge was occupied, and it was also the headquarters of the Confederate Army's Trans-Mississippi Department, which was commanded by General Edmund Kirby Smith. Shreveport was also the site of the last official Confederate flag being lowered on May 26, 1865.
    God Bless Louisiana and God Bless the South!

Wreath and First National Confederate
Flag placed at The South's Defenders
Monument for Confederate Memorial Day
2015 by Compatriot S.T. Lanier of Capt.
J.W. Bryan Camp 1390, Sons of Confederate Veterans.