Camp Beauregard began in 1905 as Camp Stafford, a permanent Guard training camp, and took its present name in 1917, after the Confederate general Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard. During World War I it trained more than 44,000 soldiers in about fifteen months. Influenza was its deadliest disease: in September and October 1918 alone there were over 7,000 cases and 410 deaths.
The museum's main subject is the Louisiana Maneuvers. About 70,000 troops came to the state for the first war games in May 1940, and the museum says half a million American soldiers took part overall, among them officers such as Eisenhower, Bradley, Ridgway and Patton. The 761st Tank Battalion, a Black unit, was activated on April 1, 1942, at Camp Claiborne and trained in the Maneuvers; the US Civil Rights Trail notes that the museum has exhibits on Black troops, and that the Army was not desegregated until Truman's Executive Order 9981 of July 26, 1948.
The museum sits in a replica World War II barracks, which began with a December 9, 1995 groundbreaking and grew from a display at the Bentley Hotel in Alexandria. Exhibits run from the Mexican War era through World War I and the Maneuvers to later conflicts, and tanks and artillery stand in an outdoor vehicle park. Camp Beauregard is an active National Guard facility, so call (318) 290-5733 about entry before driving out.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour