St. Charles currency $0.50 Post Civil War currency. (Courtesy of Pat Yoes)
St. Charles Parish currency $1 Post Civil War currency. (Courtesy of Pat Yoes)
St. Charles Parish currency $2 Post Civil War currency. (Courtesy of Pat Yoes)
Red Church Presbytery rear elevation. Father J. M. Paret lived in this presbytery from December of 1848 until October 1869, which spanned the golden age of the antebellum years to the era of Reconstruction. This included the Civil War and its profound social changes. The levee was raised only five to seven feet during this time. Wood was gathered from the Mississippi River twice a year during December and March, which the residents considered a Godsend. (Photo courtesy of LSU Press)
Located in Hahnville on La. 18 (River Road). Home of General Richard Taylor, son of Zachary Taylor, Louisiana statesman and member of 1861 Secession Convention. Commanded Louisiana District, 1862–64; defeated Banks at Battle of Mansfield, 1864. Federals plundered home in 1862. (Erected by Louisiana Department of Commerce and Industry in 1961.) (Marker missing in 2010)
Civil War site. Located in Boutte on US/LA 90. Union train with 60 men ambushed by Confederate force of Louisiana militia and volunteers on September 4, 1862. Train escaped to New Orleans. Fourteen Union soldiers killed and twenty-two wounded in the skirmish. (Erected by St. Charles Parish Police Jury and St. Charles Bicentennial Committee.)
Site of Civil War battles. Located in Des Allemands on US/LA 90. Le district des Allemands, settled by Germans about 1720, the scene of numerous skirmishes between Confederate guerillas and Union forces, 1862–63. Most famous skirmish resulted in capture of an entire detachment of Union soldiers on September 4, 1862.
Le district des Allemands, settled by Germans about 1720, the scene of numerous skirmishes between Confederate guerillas and Union forces, 1862–63. Most famous skirmish resulted in capture of an entire detachment of Union soldiers on September 4, 1862.
A former slave, Polidore came to Louisiana from Virginia during the Civil War and fought on the Union side. After the war he settled in the area and changed his name to John Smith. He married Margurite Thomas and had six children. He was listed in the 1880 census as a laborer. He is buried in the Kenner Cemetery located in the Bonnet Carré Spillway. His descendants operated the Smith’s Grocery Store in Hahnville for more than 80 years. (Photo courtesy of descendant Carolyn Smith Boyd)
Owner of Fashion Plantation.
Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, b. 1826, d. 1879, was the owner of Fashion Plantation. He was the son of President Zachary Taylor and the brother-in-law of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Taylor was a U.S. Senator, 1856–1860; a colonel in the Louisiana Ninth Infantry (appointed by Governor Moore); was appointed brigadier general in 1861; fought with distinction under Generals “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee; was a member of Louisiana Secession Committee and chairman of the Committee on Military and Naval Affairs; and enacted the Conscription Act to enlist aid to fight Union troops. He is interred with his wife at Metairie Cemetery.
Fashion Plantation was located in Hahnville and was owned by former U.S. President Zachary Taylor, although he never resided there. It was inherited by his son Lieutenant General Richard Taylor in 1851. General Taylor served with distinction in St. Charles Parish and throughout the south in the Confederate Army. Fashion Plantation was plundered and destroyed by Union troops. Personal accounts attest that it had been one of the most splendid in the area. The Mississippi River claimed the original site. Fashion Plantation residential developments are now located on the remaining portions of the plantation.
The Scheckschneider (Schexnaydre) and Zeringue families standing in front of Ormond Plantation in Destrehan. (Photo courtesy of Larry and Sharon Schexnaydre)
Leon Sarpy was born in Tennessee and fought in the Civil War. He purchased Prospect Plantation in addition to two neighboring plantations after the war. The Prospect, Good Hope, and Sarpy Plantations became the towns of New Sarpy, Good Hope and Sellers, which became Norco.
Ormond Plantation.
The former slave quarters of Destrehan Plantation became freed Negroes’ homes after the Civil War.
Ormond Plantation in the early 1900s. (Photo courtesy of Chip Zeringue)
The Ormond Plantation is one of the few houses that escaped fires, floods, and the Civil War. It was originally built in 1790 by Pierre Trépagnier on land granted to him by Spanish Governor Bernardo deGalvez for his service during the time of the American Revolution. In 1805, the property was acquired by Richard Butler, who named the plantation Ormond after an Irish ancestor, the Duke d’Ormonde. Upon his death, Ormond was deeded to Butler’s sister whose husband was naval officer Samuel McCutchon (Fr. Paret spelled it McCutcheon). Ormond Plantation adjoined the Little Red Church property, housed a post office, and had a large boat landing. Ormond is the only plantation included in Fr. Paret’s series of watercolors that survives into the twenty-first century.