Battleground Louisiana: Civil War Events and Experiences

The Rapides Parish Library in Alexandria will host a six-week series of readings and discussions about the Civil War as it was experienced within Louisiana.
The program is entitled “Battleground Louisiana: Civil War Events and Experiences.” It is funded by the State of Louisiana and sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and the Louisiana Library Association. 
The program is free and open to the public and will be held on Tuesdays from 6:30 to 8:30 PM., beginning on April 1st and concluding on May 6th for a total of six sessions.  The program will be held at the Huie-Dellmon House, 430 St. James Street.  Those interested in attending are encouraged to register in advance at the library.  The phone number is 445-2411, ext. 241.
“Battleground Louisiana” will be conducted by Henry Robertson, Associate Professor of History, and Scott Culpepper, Assistant Professor of History at Louisiana College.  The six sessions are entitled:
1.  Secession and Mobilization
2. 1862: Year of Challenge, the Fall of New Orleans and the Battle of Baton Rouge
3. To Capture the Mississippi River, 1862-1863.
4. Struggling home Front and the African-American Experience
5. The Red River Campaign of 1864
6. Consequences of War: The Political and Social Upheavals. 
Texts include:
The Louisiana Native Guards: The Black Military Experience During the Civil War, by John Hollandsworth
When the Devil Came down to Dixie: Ben Butler in New Orleans, by Chester Hearn
One Damn Blunder from Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign of 1864, by Gary Joiner Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone, 1861-1868, ed. by John Anderson
The Civil War in Louisiana, by John Winters.
“While thousands of Louisianans died serving the Confederate cause in the campaigns in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, equally significant events occurred within Louisiana,” observed James Segreto, Director of RELIC Library Programs for the LEH.  He further added, “Its many rivers were settings of complex and costly campaigns with direct bearing on the duration and outcome of the war.  A state with a mosaic of racial and economic interests became a battleground and a testing ground for racial solutions foreshadowing a postwar South and a modern America.”
“Battleground Louisiana” will offer the reading public an opportunity to examine several significant campaigns and their outcomes, as well as the experiences of some of the important segments in Louisiana society.  Texts will guide readers through the battlegrounds and the settings of conflicts and controversies.
Pre-registration is strongly encouraged because of the limited number of books and expected public response.