Battle Of Yellow Bayou

Joseph Mower's 4,500 Union soldiers fought here on May 18, 1864, to hold off the Confederates while the rest of Banks's army crossed the Atchafalaya at Simmesport. General Wharton ordered an assault on Mower's line in a tangled thicket; Colonel William Parsons objected that it would be costly, and it went ahead anyway. The thicket caught fire and ended pursuit. Sources disagree on losses: Mower reported 267 Union casualties, the National Park Service 360. Colonel Joseph Bailey meanwhile lashed 22 transports together as a bridge, and the army crossed on May 19 and 20.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Louisiana State Penitentiary Museum — 14 mi
  The Angola museum outside the penitentiary gate, opened in 1997 on the history of crime and punishment in Louisiana, on ground where convicts were leased out as what 64 Parishes calls legal slave labor.
• Tunica-Biloxi Museum — 15 mi
  The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana's own museum at Marksville, built around the Tunica Treasure that the tribe won back in court.
• Avoyelles Parish Courthouse: Solomon Northup Marker — 16 mi
  The Marksville courthouse where Solomon Northup was freed in January 1853, with a marker and a 2026 bronze that shows him rising from the mud.

More markers nearby

• Sarto Old Iron Bridge — 6.4 mi
• A Historic Landmark — 6.4 mi
• Bayou Des Glaises — 6.4 mi
• Big Bend: Development of a Community — 6.4 mi