Louisiana State Parks gives the setting this way: after Vicksburg and Port Hudson fell in July 1863, the Union held the Mississippi and turned toward Shreveport, the Confederate headquarters west of the river. The country on the way was cotton country. Louisiana had more than 331,000 enslaved people in 1860, and cotton had spread north along the Red River, planted and picked by men, women and children held there by force.
On April 8, 1864, about 10,500 Confederate troops under Richard Taylor faced about 6,400 Union troops strung out along a narrow road south of Mansfield. General Alfred Mouton was killed leading the charge, and General Polignac pressed the attack until the Union line broke. The Union side lost 2,235 men, most of them captured or missing, along with 20 cannons and 156 wagons. The next day at Pleasant Hill, both armies withdrew after dark.
The park began in 1924, when the United Daughters of the Confederacy received four acres for a memorial. The state took over in 1954 and dedicated a museum in 1957. A monument to Polignac went up in 1925, and by 1982 the park held seven Confederate monuments, with another added in 2010. Today the site has the museum, a three-quarter-mile battlefield trail and living-history events. Louisiana State Parks lists it as open Wednesday through Sunday and charges $6 for most adults.
The closest stops worth working into your route
Roadside plaques and monuments within a short detour