NEW WRITINGS
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Fort Butler 1863
by William A. Spedale

We were not repulsed, and never would have been, until we found after getting into the stockade there was yet another ditch to cross running in front of and parallel with the river, and no means whatever at hand to cross it ..... There never was more desperation displayed than was shown by our men engaged in this assault.

Confederate General Tom Green
Offical Report following his defeat at Fort Butler

Once located on the west bank of the Mississippi River at Donaldsonville, Louisiana, this obscure fort, long overlooked by historians and authors, was one of the few Civil War bastions built on the Mississippi by Federal troops which was attacked by Confederate forces.

This well-researched book, supplemented with graphics and photographs, is presented in a lively, detailed account, beginning with the Union naval bombardment of Donaldsonville through the construction phase and short life of this once impregnable stronghold.

The author focuses mainly on the events leading up to and following the battle on June 28, 1863 (see memorial page 3). A final chapter describes the archaeological excavation conducted in September of 1996.

Sadly, Fort Butler was destroyed 37 years later by the Corps of Engineers when Bayou Lafourche was permanently dammed at the Mississippi River to prevent seasonal flooding.

For sale by:

William A. Spedale
420 Wylie Drive
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70808

UPCOMING CAMPAIGNS

Port Hudson, Louisiana ~ 25, 26 March 2000. Annual reenactment of the Siege of Port Hudson, 1863.