The Battle of Bayou Bourbaux {Also Called the Battle of Bayou Carencro}

Text

The Battle of Bayou Bourbeux.
The Civil War was entering its third year, Vicksburg had fallen, and the Union had control of the Mississippi. Gettysburg would produce the most significant loss of life on American soil, with 51,000 casualties. Lincoln would give his Gettysburg address to a hushed crowd, and Louisiana's battle would be pushed to the back pages of History, rememberd only on small historic markers along its country highways.
General Taylors Army was well versed in the art of war. Having fought in Berwick and retreating north, he would fight At Ft. Bisland, then Franklin and Bayou Teche. From there, it was Vermillionville, then Bayou Bourbeux.
The 6000 confederate soldiers under General Taylor and led by General Thomas Green would meet in battle at Carencro with 1625 Union troops Led by General Stephen Burbridge. The Battle of Bayou Bourbeux or Bayou Carencro would leave forty to sixty confederates lost and about three hundred wounded. The Union had lost thirty killed and 129 wounded, and 562 captured.
Among the confederate fallen Third Sergeant George Speagle, the brother of Philip, who missed that fight due to malaria, and Henry, who had fallen in Kentucky at the age of 17. George would be interned in a mass grave that is now marked by a Historical Marker. Not far from that gave is another on what was the Bellevue Plantation home of Benjamin Rogers. Rogers's home was torn down to harvest the cypress lumber. A new house was built close by, and its slab was poured over the graves of the fallen Yankees.
The war would continue for another year, continuing to the north, leaving a path of destruction in Opelousas, Alexandria, and Monroe. Not until April 8, 1865, would the killing be done.