Early in the Civil War, Louisiana's Confederate government sanctioned a militia unit of black troops, the Louisiana Native Guards. Intended as a response to demands from members of New Orleans' substantial free black population that they be permitted to participate in the defense of their state, the unit was used by Confederate authorities for public display and propaganda purposes but was not allowed to fight. After the fall of New Orleans, General Benjamin F. Butler brought the Native Guards into Federal military service and increased their numbers with runaway slaves. He intended to use the troops for guard duty and heavy labor. His successor, Nathaniel P. Banks, did not trust the black Native Guard officers, and as he replaced them with white commanders, the mistreatment and misuse of the black troops steadily increased. The first large-scale deployment of the Native Guards occurred in May, 1863, during the Union siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, when two of their regiments were ordered to storm an impregnable hilltop position. Although the soldiers fought valiantly, the charge was driven back with extensive losses. The white officers and the northern press praised the tenacity and fighting ability of the black troops, but they were still not accepted on the same terms as their white counterparts. After the war, Native Guard veterans took up the struggle for civil rights - in particular, voting rights - for Louisiana's black population. The Louisiana Native Guards is the first account to consider that struggle. By documenting their endeavors through Reconstruction, James G. Hollandsworth places the Native Guards' military service in the broader context of a civil rights movement thatpredates more recent efforts by a hundred years. This remarkable work presents a vivid picture of men eager to prove their courage and ability to a world determined to exploit and demean them.

Early in the Civil War, Louisiana's Confederate government sanctioned a militia unit of black troops, the Louisiana Native Guards. Intended as a response to demands from members of New Orleans' substantial free black population that they be permitted to participate in the defense of their state, the unit was used by Confederate authorities for public display and propaganda purposes but was not allowed to fight. After the fall of New Orleans, General Benjamin F. Butler brought the Native Guards into Federal military service and increased their numbers with runaway slaves. He intended to use the troops for guard duty and heavy labor. His successor, Nathaniel P. Banks, did not trust the black Native Guard officers, and as he replaced them with white commanders, the mistreatment and misuse of the black troops steadily increased. The first large-scale deployment of the Native Guards occurred in May, 1863, during the Union siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, when two of their regiments were ordered to storm an impregnable hilltop position. Although the soldiers fought valiantly, the charge was driven back with extensive losses. The white officers and the northern press praised the tenacity and fighting ability of the black troops, but they were still not accepted on the same terms as their white counterparts. After the war, Native Guard veterans took up the struggle for civil rights - in particular, voting rights - for Louisiana's black population. The Louisiana Native Guards is the first account to consider that struggle. By documenting their endeavors through Reconstruction, James G. Hollandsworth places the Native Guards' military service in the broader context of a civil rights movement thatpredates more recent efforts by a hundred years. This remarkable work presents a vivid picture of men eager to prove their courage and ability to a world determined to exploit and demean them.

Early in the Civil War, Louisiana's Confederate government sanctioned a militia unit of black troops, the Louisiana Native Guards. Intended as a response to demands from members of New Orleans' substantial free black population that they be permitted to participate in the defense of their state, the unit was used by Confederate authorities for public display and propaganda purposes but was not allowed to fight. After the fall of New Orleans, General Benjamin F. Butler brought the Native Guards into Federal military service and increased their numbers with runaway slaves. He intended to use the troops for guard duty and heavy labor. His successor, Nathaniel P. Banks, did not trust the black Native Guard officers, and as he replaced them with white commanders, the mistreatment and misuse of the black troops steadily increased. The first large-scale deployment of the Native Guards occurred in May, 1863, during the Union siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, when two of their regiments were ordered to storm an impregnable hilltop position. Although the soldiers fought valiantly, the charge was driven back with extensive losses. The white officers and the northern press praised the tenacity and fighting ability of the black troops, but they were still not accepted on the same terms as their white counterparts. After the war, Native Guard veterans took up the struggle for civil rights - in particular, voting rights - for Louisiana's black population. The Louisiana Native Guards is the first account to consider that struggle. By documenting their endeavors through Reconstruction, James G. Hollandsworth places the Native Guards' military service in the broader context of a civil rights movement thatpredates more recent efforts by a hundred years. This remarkable work presents a vivid picture of men eager to prove their courage and ability to a world determined to exploit and demean them. As one of the Native Guard officers wrote his mother from Port Hudson in April, 1864, "Nobody really desires our success(, ) and it's uphill work".

Included in this audio-enhanced edition are recordings of the U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey reading Native Guard in its entirety, as well as an interview with the poet from the HMH podcast The Poetic Voice, in which she recounts what it was like to grow up in the South as the daughter of a white father and a black mother and describes other influences that inspired the work. Experience this Pulitzer Prize–winning collection in an engaging new way. Growing up in the Deep South, Natasha Trethewey was never told that in her hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi, black soldiers had played a pivotal role in the Civil War. Off the coast, on Ship Island, stood a fort that had once been a Union prison housing Confederate captives. Protecting the fort was the second regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards -- one of the Union's first official black units. Trethewey's new book of poems pays homage to the soldiers who served and whose voices have echoed through her own life. The title poem imagines the life of a former slave stationed at the fort, who is charged with writing letters home for the illiterate or invalid POWs and his fellow soldiers. Just as he becomes the guard of Ship Island's memory, so Trethewey recalls her own childhood as the daughter of a black woman and a white man. Her parents' marriage was still illegal in 1966 Mississippi. The racial legacy of the Civil War echoes through elegiac poems that honor her own mother and the forgotten history of her native South. Native Guard is haunted by the intersection of national and personal experience.

"Charge To Glory" is the story of two regiments of black soldiers during the Civil War. Formed by Andre Calloux, a well educated business man from Louisiana, and led by black officers, they fought at the battle for Port Hudson.

Provides a brief history and "certain information such as organization, campaigns, losses, commanders, etc." for each unit listed in "Marcus J. Wright's List of Field Officers, Regiments, and Battalions in the Confederate States Army, 1861-1865."--Intro., p.xi.

Company I of the 16th Louisiana Infantry was originally referred to as"The Castor Guards" from Bienville Parish, Louisiana. They were also referred to as Mabry's and Houston's after their commanders as the war progressed. They were one of several Confederate militia groups formed at Bienville at the beginning of the Civil War. The Castor Guards assembled on 1 September 1861 at the Castor Church (now the site of the Old Castor Cemetery), and rode to Camp Moore, Louisiana. As in every small community across the south, the men who formed these units were brothers, cousins and neighbors. They knew each other most, if not all of their lives. And they were now gathering to take off to the war front together. Bidding farewell to their families, the soldiers left for Camp Moore, just north of Tangipahoa, Lousiana for training. When they arrived, they were assigned as Company I of the 16th Louisiana Infantry. The 16th Regiment was officially organized on September 29, 1861, at Camp Moore. Besides the men from Bienville, it contained men from Avoyelles, East Feliciana, Caddo, Livingston, Rapides, St. Landry, and St. Helena parishes of Louisiana. There were originally a total of 851 soldiers in the regiment, including the Castor Guards. Apparently, the regiment added soldiers through recruitment as they traveled, and consolidated with other units. The regiment spent the winter at training camp in Louisiana. During the Civil War, troops could only move easily in dry months, so very few battles took place in the middle of winter. This book outlines with illustrations the four years of war that this Bienville Parish group underwent. It also contains a roster and service record of its soldiers. The following men were in the Castor Guards Alexander, William E. Amason, John W. Ard, J. M, died at Shiloh Barker, Andrew J. Besant, Robert A. Blackman, J. H. Booker, William Brackin, Alfred Bryan, Terrell Bryant, William H. Brackin, Alfred Brackin, John Braswell, Blake William Brill, Samuel Brinson, Anthony W., died in Georgia Brooks, C. W. Bryan, Terrell Bryant, William H. Byas, Thomas H. Campbell, Harper M. Campbell, William, Killed at New Hope Carlile, John W. Chandler, John W. Died 1863 Chitwood, James O., Killed at Murfreesboro Clark, Jeff, Died at Nashville Clark, Samuel J. Died at Tennessee Cline, Alexander Cockeram, Henry E. Died in war Comelander, Joseph Collinsworth, Samuel N. Died 1864 Conover, John Cooper, William P. Davis, William D. Foster, William C. Grice, John C. Gough, Enos Harvard, John Hinson, John Hinson, Charles Hilbun, Fredrick E. Hinton, John W. Jinks, William Koonce, Andrew Long, John E. Long, Joseph, H. Long, Andrew J. Lovin, James Mayberry, William T. McDonald, Hiram Mobley, Allen Monroe, Jackson A. Miller, Thomas J. Morgan, William Murphy, Elijah F. Mobly, Joseph B. Peavy, Allen Pitman, James S. Pullen, Francis Pullen, Wily A. Pullen, Harvey Rigdon, Ephraim Rushing, James Rushing, Andrew J. Row, William T. Read, William Robinson, George Scogan, Toliver W., Pvt. Simpson, Jas. A., Pvt. Skinner, Joel J., Sergt. Company I, 16th La. Inf. Spencer, R. F., Spindle, James Sullivan, John Harrison, Private, En 1861-1865 Stewart, Henry Sanders, John K. Scoggin, Jacob S. Skinner, Joel J., Sergt. Company I, 16th La. Inf. Spencer, R. F., Pvt. Thomas, James Tarkinton, Leonidas Tierney, Michael Thomas, Henry Williams, George Wood, Thomas Williams, David F. Williams, Raleigh, Sr. Wimberly, Thomas H. Williams, Raleigh, Jr. Woods, Aris Zylks, Abraham Zylks, Thomas