Andrew Shields, later known as Anderson Shields, served in the 49th U.S. Colored Infantry – a regiment that began its service as the 11th Louisiana Infantry, African Descent. Just prior to the war, he had married Kate Street, a woman … Continue reading →
It occurred to me, when I wrote my recent post about Webster, a runaway slave, that with digitized texts, it has now become possible to develop a biographical sketch of an individual slave simply by performing a keyword search of … Continue reading →
October was a trying time for Benjamin Sims. He had learned that his brother, M. W. (Milton Walker) Sims, a staff officer of Confederate general Paul Octave Hebert, had been captured by Union forces near Natchez in July. M.W. Sims … Continue reading →
As we close out Black History Month, and begin Women’s History Month, this seems like a fitting time to discuss how black women in the region of Milliken’s Bend were affected by the war. One of the finest works I … Continue reading →
The story of Davis Bend is not what you’d expect. Confederate President Jefferson Davis made his home at Brierfield. His older brother, Joseph, had his home nearby at Hurricane. Both of these estates were located on a thumb-like pennisula of … Continue reading →