The Teche Campaign — The War Comes Up the Bayou

In April 1863, Union General Nathaniel Banks pushed north from Morgan City up Bayou Teche to seize control of the waterway that controlled the region. He commanded infantry and Union Navy vessels. Against him: Confederate General Richard Taylor — son of President Zachary Taylor — who by his own account had no soldiers, no arms, no munitions, and no money. The Battle of Fort Bisland lasted April 12–13. The clash at Irish Bend near Franklin followed on April 14. Banks was successful in both. Taylor abandoned the entire Teche country, retreated through Lafayette to Opelousas, and burned bridges to slow the Union advance. Banks captured the Confederate fort at Butte a la Rose and Alexandria. The Shadows-on-the-Teche in New Iberia became Union army headquarters. This is Acadiana — where Acadian refugees from Canada settled after expulsion by the British at the end of the Seven Years' War, intermarrying with other settlers to form what became Cajun culture. The Bayou Teche controlled the region. Banks wanted a route to connect with the Mississippi River north of Confederate-held Port Hudson. He got it. Earthworks from Fort Bisland are still visible along Bayou Teche south of Franklin — dirt piled in 1863, abandoned in 1863, visible today.