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Catahoula Guerrillas Submitted by Ross Brooks
02/12/2005
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Comments: This was brought to my attention by Mark Packard, but was compiled by Ross Brooks, who deserves credit.
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The unit was formed around April 26, 1861 and was fully equipped by the people of Catahoula. It consisted of men "from the better class of people of Catahoula Parish, the whole raising 12,000 bags of cotton per annum."
May 13, 1861 Captain Buhoup visited Vidalia, Concordia Parish, on his way to see the Governor and get his company accepted for Confederate service. It was organized on May 14 and mustered into State service May 18, 1861, left Trinity on May 23, 1861 and arrived in New Orleans on the Steamer E. R. Hart on May 25, 1861.
It was originally made a part of the 8th Louisiana Infantry Regiment, however during the election campaign for field officers the unit was disgruntled by the process and looked for a position in another unit. It was added to the Battalion whilst it was at Camp Moore LA. on June 10, 1861 when the "Orleans Claiborne Guards" failed to muster.
August 21, 1861, Camp Bienville VA 82 members of the Company sign a document stating that, despite rumors to the contrary in Concordia Parish, the company joined Wheat's Battalion at their behest, rather than because of Captain Buhoup; that "although the regiment they belong to may contain exceptionable men, they have seen more that rivals in members of other regiments, and add the following:
"We are proud to say, that we belong to Wheat's Battalion." That the reason assigned for joining this regiment is that they were to be the first to move on and participate in the action."
August 30, 1861 advertisement placed by William T. Morris for "about twenty-five volunteers," stating that "the conduct of this company in the skirmish of "Seneca Falls" and in the Great Battle of Manassas, has placed them in such estimation and in such favor with the commanding General, that they will always be among those who will be selected to fill honorable positions and spheres of active service."
September 23, 1861, Camp Bienville, near Centreville VA the company met and drafted a series of resolutions censuring one William C. Gillespie of Concordia Parish for not offering a meal or bed to Private Z. Blackman, discharged member of the company. They would leave the Battalion on November 1, 1861 and Company B 7th Louisiana Infantry Battalion and Company I 15th Louisiana Infantry Regiment on July 25, 1862.
Rolls made at for: Mustering into Confederate Service for the War, at Camp Moore, LA., June 9, 1861
June 8 - July 1, 1861 at Camp Bienville, August 3, 1861.
September - October 1861 at ----------.
OFFICERS:
CAPTAINS:
BUHOUP, Jonathon W.; Enlisted June 8, 1861. A 35-year-old married merchant from Trinity, LA. September 24, 1861, Camp Bienville VA. Major C. R. Wheat wrote the editor of the Concordia Intelligencer:
"Having heard reports prejudicial to the reputation of Capt. J. W. Buhoup, of the ‘Catahoula Guerrillas,’ have been circulated in your parish, I would ask you the favor to publish this, my statement. Capt. B., not only behaved with distinguished gallantry up to the time I was wounded, but subsequently returned to the advanced position and only retired under a galling fire. It is to him and the gallant men of the Battalion that I owe my preservation. For, although insensible, they bore me to a place of safety. As it is my duty, so is it my pleasure thus to testify to the gallantry of one of my Captains, who, in camp or the field, is always at his post. Died while on recruiting service in New Orleans at 8 o'clock PM, March 1, 1862 "from a disease he caught in camp." |
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