Francis T. Nicholls

Nicholls lost his left arm at the First Battle of Winchester in 1862 and a leg at Fredericksburg in 1863, serving the Confederacy. Elected governor in 1876 as a Democrat, he faced Republican Stephen B. Packard, who claimed the same office, and both men were sworn in during 1877. Packard's claim rested on the votes of newly enfranchised Black Louisianans. It collapsed when President Hayes withdrew federal troops. Historians count Nicholls among the Redeemer governors whose rule began more than a century of one-party white control. He returned as governor in 1888.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• E. D. White Historic Site — 20 mi
  A National Historic Landmark house of about 1790 on Bayou Lafourche, built by enslaved people and home to two Whites, a governor and a Chief Justice, with an exhibit on the bayou's history.
• Whitney Plantation — 21 mi
  A museum on a former sugar plantation along the River Road that tells its story through the people who were enslaved there, with memorials to 107,000 enslaved Louisianans and 2,200 children.
• LSU Rural Life Museum — 22 mi
  Four slave cabins moved from Welham Plantation and a working-plantation row of more than twenty saved buildings, on land the Burden family held as Windrush plantation since the 1830s.
• Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center — 24 mi
  A Jean Lafitte National Historical Park center on Bayou Lafourche with Acadian and bayou-life exhibits, a 200-seat theater and ranger-guided boat tours to the E. D. White house.

More markers nearby

• Louisiana Square — steps away
• Donaldsonville — steps away
• Historic Donaldsonville — 0.2 mi
• All Roads Lead to Donaldsonville — 0.2 mi