Swamps of Louisiana
There were several engagements as Union general Nathaniel Banks led his army in a round-about way through the bayous of Louisiana to eventually get at Port Hudson on the Mississippi. I’m confused about the dates. And I was even more confused when I read the following because although it is written that a battle was fought at Vermillion Bayou on April 17th, the two soldiers in this story were killed on April 12th.
From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in 1863:
Two of Our Brave Boys Fallen.
The list of casualties from the battle fought by Gen. Banks at Vermillionville, La., includes among the killed, Monroe Smith, son of Jared Smith, of Romulus, and Austin Bradley, son of Burr Bradley, of Scott’s Corners. These brave boys enlisted in the summer of 1861, and have endured the toils and withstood the danger of war for nearly two years, to fall at length side by side, while nobly fighting for that country whose honor they had sworn to maintain, and in whose cause they had offered their lives. They were the only ones in the 75th Regiment, N.Y.V., reported killed in that engagement. – Ovid Sentinel.
Austin Bradley
J. Monroe Smith
Organized in November 1861, the 75th New York Infantry Regiment was first sent to Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island to oppose the Confederates at Pensacola. The regiment moved to New Orleans in September 1862.
The second half of Cayuga in the Field (by Henry hall and James Hall) recounts the exploits of the 75th.On page 94 the area around Fort Bisland is described as a jungle.
The image of picket duty in the swamps was published in the May 9, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly, which can be viewed at Son of the South
By 1860 the “Three Bears” of Ovid, New York had been completed.
Austin Bradley and Monroe Smith joined up in Ovid – home of the Three Bears
