Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Fall Fires Uncover Confederate Fortification

From the December 8, 1861, Shreveport (La) Times "Fall fires uncover history" by John Andrew Pope.

A drought last fall caused fires that uncovered part of Shreveport's Civil War history near Cross Bayou.  A small battery, or lunette, which would have mounted one or two pieces of artillery was revealed.  It was in perfect position to fire on Union ships on the bayou at a sharp turn where their bows or sterns would be exposed.

Marty Loecher has wanted to get into the area for years, but it was too overgrown.  Back during the war, the site would have been even higher, but the marsh has since been mostly filled in.  It connected Fort Albert Sidney Johnson with other fortifications on the Bossier Parish side of the Red River.

During the 1920s, when the nearby power plant was being built, an old cannon was found and displayed, but it is now missing.  Historians were not sure if it was from the Civil War or perhaps even from Hernando DeSoto in the early 1500s.

Lost and Found.  --Old B-Runner

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