Newspapers: The Schmidt Chronicles; LaSalle Parish, La. Submitted by Jack Willis Date: 16 Oct 2004 Source: From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Grass Roots and Cockleburrs...Date: 04 Oct 2004 Original Publication date: 12 Sep 2004 ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** *********************************************** The Schmidt Chronicles - Revised 10-04 Union General Nathaniel Bank's defeat at Pleasant Hill on April 9th, 1864,after previous bloody battles on April 8th at Sabine Crossroads and Mansfield, caused him to withdraw southward. On two different occasions, Banks considered surrendering, but his staff overruled him. At Natchitoches on April 7th, Banks had over 36,000 troops, a thousand wagonloads of logistics, and General Steele was supposed to be coming south from Little Rock with 15,000 more troops. Admiral David Dixon Porter had sent 13 ironclads, seven light draught vessels and 20 water troop transports. To all appearances, it looked like the capture of Shreveport, now the state capitol was inevitable. But in the Pleasant Hill battle alone, Banks had 300 killed, 1600 wounded, and 2100 missing or captured. Confederate General Richard "Dick" Taylor had 600 killed, 2400 wounded, and 500 missing or captured. These three engagements constituted the largest and last battles ever fought in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of operations. One reason Banks called off the campaign was that he had 10,000 troops "on loan" from W.T. "Uncle Billy" Sherman. On the 15th of April Sherman was to begin amassing troops for his heinous, barbaric march through Georgia to the sea, which would effectively kill the South's will to continue to fight. On Banks retreat down the Red, Rebel forces continually harassed his forces. "Secesh" sharpshooters took a terrible toll of life on the gunboats trying vainly to get down the Red River during its low water period. It was one sandbar after another, and always, always the withering gunfire from seclusion on the river banks. Banks apparently had heard of what kind of campaign Sherman intended to wage through Georgia, so taking a page out that book, he turned loose his mounted cavalry, along with contingents of "jayhawkers" and "scalawags," upon the populace of East Central Louisiana. One northern account described their actions as "foraging considerably". This was an outright blatant lie. The whole vengeful operation turned loose on the civilian populace was rapine, pillaging and plunder at it's worst. Bank's intentions, like Sherman's, were to eliminate as many Southerners (not soldiers) as possible. His hell-bent legions of scavengers made it a point to attack villages and communities who were protected only by old men, women, and children. Their personal items were confiscated and burned. Their food was taken and all means of food production was destroyed. One man who was a child when the invaders came later recalled the terrifying visit of the hated "bluebellies". Some Yankee officers rode up under the chinaberry trees in the back yard and began demanding food from his mother. After a hurried conference with his grandmother, the women began to comply with the scalawag's requests. After feeding them, the soldiers began to inquire for money and valuables and received unsatisfactory answers in this regard. The silverware and other valuable articles had been secreted to the bottom of a six hundred-barrel cistern hidden beneath the house. At a plantation in Catahoula Parish, a company of the marauders took up residence between the manor house and the front fence. They called out the lady of the house and demanded food. They didn't know it, but her husband, who was a scout in the 2nd Louisiana Cavalry, had left early that morning to go help defend Ft. Beauregard at Harrisonburg. The men came up to her holding their caps and asked that they be filled with meat and other food. On the advice of of her overseer, she complied. She took the key to the smokehouse and opened it up. The whole top was hung with hams, bacon, and sausages and in a matter of minutes they had stripped the house of its contents. There was nothing left but a hogshead of molasses saved back for the Negro slaves. They took it too, while others killed all the cows, calves and all fowls. Small chickens too little to eat were stepped on and killed; setting hens were killed and eggs destroyed. Some of the "soldiers" asked the slaves if they were treated well? They told them all they had to do was say the word and they would burn their mistress and her children up in the house. In the Big Bend country, in what then was the southwest corner of the Catahoula Prairie District, was located the farm of a gentleman named John Henry Schmidt. It was located on the eastern shores of Little River, not too far south of the Gilmore ferry at Zenoria. Schmidt had emigrated from Jena, (pronounced Yanna) Germany, and settled in the area prior to the War of Northern Aggression. At one time he had been a seafarer, and had a steamboat also named the "Jena". He would charter sailing ships to Europe and buy munitions, which he brought back and sold to both the Northern and Southern interests. He happened to be at home when word came that the Union sympathizers were headed his way. He had the "Jena" loaded to the tops of the decks with bales of cotton he intended to take to New Orleans to sell to finance another voyage to the Continent. Rather than let the Yankees seize the cotton and boat, Schmidt pulled it up into a small inlet off of Little River and set fire to the boat and cargo. A friend of mine Bobby Brown went to this site back in the 50s and salvaged small remnants of cotton, which had been baled at one time. The way he was able to find the location was by following directions given him by his grandmother Mrs. Mary Hudson Price. The same directions led him to the small graveyard where Schmidt and his namesake son are buried, possibly in the same grave. It seems the son was an epileptic and was wading in some backwater off of Little River and had a Grand Mal seizure. He fell down in the water, and in the father's attempt to save his son, they both drowned The grave marker reads Schmidt, John Henry March 16, 1832 July 1, 1898 Schmidt, John Henry October 10, 1878 July 1, 1898 The marker does not have an inscription on it but it could have read "Poor soldiers, thy warfare is over..." GR&C(Sept. 12, '01) Jack Morgan Willis