History Submitted to the USGENWEB Archives Project by Fran Faitt MAY 2001 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Extracted From The Tensas Gazette-St. Joseph, La., 140th year-17th issue, Pages 5 and 12, dated Wednesday, April 28, 1993 The Tensas Gazette, 150th Anniversary Edition The following text reprinted from 1957 and 1958 The story of Grant's March through Tensas re-told by Barbara A. Bagley During the years of 1957 and 1958 the Tensas Gazette published a very interesting column by Mrs. Barbara Allen Bagley entitled "Tensas Can Be Proud." The column in the July 19, 1957 issue of the Tensas Gazette re- lated the story of Gen. U.S. Grant's march through Tensas during the Civil War, and it is re-printed as follows: Many of us have been confused over the years about Grant's march of 60,000 Yankees through Tensas. Perhaps if we can avoid the added confu- sion of convincing our Little League Baseball players that Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle were not with the Yankees in 1863 and if we can get the help of some of the old timers in identifying spots where certain ante bellum homes stood, we can visualize this march on which so many were impressed with the beauty of Lake St. Joseph. From the description of Sarah Dorsey in her "Recollections of Henry Watkins Allen", Lake St. Joseph must have been a wide and beautiful lake. Mr. Ed McDonald told us once that the level of Lake St. Joseph was at one time six feet higher than the level of Lake Bruin. Mrs. Dorsey in 1866, writing from the banks of Lake St. Joseph, de- scribes our Tensas lakes thusly: "Lake St. Joseph forms a horseshoe, and arabic arc, about eighteen miles long, which curves with its conves side to- wards the River, either and about one mile distant from the River, terminat- ing in a small bayou, New Carthage is situated about eight miles above the north end of the lake. Just below New Carthage lies the magnificent estate of "Somerset", formerly belonging to Hon. John Perkins, who is now a colo- nist at Carlotta, in Mexico. Lake St. Joseph is the second of the string of lakes, which form the most distinctive and beautiful ornament of the State of Louisiana, - Lake Providence (into which the Federals tried to cut the be- ginning of their canal, designed to run down into the River "Bayou Macon", after they failed, in the shorter one, on the isthmus opposite Vicksburg), being the first of this necklace of pearls. Lake Bruin is the third, about three miles lower down than St. Joseph: then comes St. Peter and St. Paul, St. John (a lovely piece of water), Lake Concordia, etc., etc. These lakes present the most charming feature of the State, and are connected with a network of bayous and small streams. They abound in fish and wa- terfowl, and the lands adjoining them are eagerly sought after as residences by the planters of North Louisiana. The first plantation in Tensas Parish was established by Scot Watson about 1812 on Lake Bruin and almost immediately afterwards Jerry Watson set up Panola Plantation north of John Densmore's Landing which was the first store on the present site of the town of St. Joseph. A. J. Watson settled on Lake St. Peter about the same time. We now know this as Cross Keys. We have often wondered where Lake Bruin got its name. Miss Mary Louise Giraud is a real "can do" artist at the Tensas Parish Library. From the Mississippi Library Commission she got two volumes which told us much of our beginnings in Tensas which came from across the Mississippi River. In a book about Judges and Lawyers of early Missis- sippi we found "Peter Bryan Bruin". He came down the river with his own family and several others in 1788, to settle in the Natchez district, having accepted the colonizing proposition of Minister Gardoqui. He established the most northern settlement of the district at that time, and erected his house on an ancient mound near the mouth of Bayou Pierre. He was ever afterward a conspicuous and leading character in the Natchez district. Upon the organization of the territory as an American possession Bruin was appointed one of the three territorial judges, entrusted with the making of laws and the administration of justice. Judge Bruin's home, called Bruinsburg, was later made famous by being chosen by General Grant as his point of debarkation for the great campaign against Vicksburg, which fell on July 4, 1863. Grant chose Bruinsburg as his point of debarkation after he had arrived at "Hard Times", a plantation at the south end of Lake St. Joseph, on the Louisiana side, three miles above Grand Gulf. When he started on his march, he was going to Rodney. There were but three land-places for many miles-Grand Gulf, Bruinsburg, and Rodney. Mrs. Dorsey states, that in 1863, Bruinsburg belonged to the Ev- ans' estate, a family whose ancestor had not been undistinguished in the war of 1814. Judge Bruin died at Bruinsburg January 27, 1827. His wife Elizabeth died September 17, 1807. The name is now not known in Mississippi, but there are descendants in the families of Briscoe, Watson, and Scott, and their alliances. Judge Bruin also had a plantation and home across the river in Concordia Parish, Louisiana. This plantation is one of our Tensas plantation, as Tensas was a part of Concordia until 1843. Do you know which one? Could it have been "Pleasant View" Albert Bondurant's plantation located on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi just opposite Bruinsburg, where Andrew Jackson Maintained a store and a racecourse for blooded horses? "Northeast Louisiana was not invaded by the union army until the winter of 1862-1863. Grant had tried for months to get to the east of Vicksburg by coming down the river and turning in above the Vicksburg fortress. General McPherson, General McArthur and General McMillen, in charge of the federal operations on the west side of the Mississippi, were stationed near Lake Providence, using Arlington plantation, home of the Confederate senator. General Sparrow, AS their headquarters. The first floor of the fine old plantation home became a stable for the officers' horses, while in the upper rooms the Federal chiefs held their war councils. General Grant met them here to devise a plan for bringing his troops down the west side of the river to attack Vicksburg from the south. Grant's idea was to cut a canal through DeSoto Point, not far from Lake Providence, by which Federal transports could evade the Vicksburg batteries. A considerable portion of the project was completed before the Mississippi rose and put a stop to furtheir operations. Remains of the canal continue to this day, having the appearance of a large drainage ditch. Thirteen years after the war the Mississippi river, of its own accord cut through DeSoto Point, "the final severance of DeSoto Point being effected in two hours," as the record has it. Grant's failure was due to the fact that he had been unable to obtain the cooperation of "Ole Miss" in his plans. After the project had been abandoned and other methods canvassed by military and naval officers, Admiral Porter suggested that gunboats and supply steamers might run by the Vicksburg batteries at night. Grant could march his army across the peninsula where they could be picked up and transported to the Mississippi side below Vicksburg. Following the plan the Federal fleet passed the batteries with the loss of two steamers, picked up Grant's forces and landed them at Bruinsburg, south of Vicks- burg, across from Tensas Parish. The doom of Vicksburg, one of the great strongholds of the Confederacy, was sealed. It was Grant's troops under the command of General W. T. Sherman and General James Tuttle that traversed the region along Lake St. Jo- seph and the Mississippi in the Memoirs of General Sherman he states, "Our route lay by Richmond (2 miles south of Tallulah) and Roundabout Bayou, then following Bayou Vidal, we struck the Mississippi River at Perkins Plantation (we know as "Somerset"). Thence the route followed Lake St. Joseph to a plantation called "Hard Times" (owned at that time by Dr. Hollingsworth) about five miles above Grand Gulf. They reached "Hard Times" on May 6, 1863. Along Lake St. Joseph were many fine cotton plantations, one being that of a Mr. Bowie, broth- er-in-law of Hon. Reverdy Johnson of Baltimore, and a relative of Jim Bow- ie (made more famous by television revival). Sherman writes, "The house was very handsom, with a fine extensive grass plot in front. The library was extensive with a fine collection of books, and hangings on the wall were two full length portraits of Reverdy Johnson and his wife -one of the most beautiful ladies of our country -with whom I had been acquainted in Washington at the time of General Taylor's administration...After reaching camp that night at "Hard Times", I sent a wagon to Bowie's to bring up to Dr. Hollingsworth's house the two por- traits for safekeeping, but before the wagon had reached Bowie's the house was burned." General Tuttle says of the Bowie mansion "It was the grandest house I ever saw or read about. The house and furnishings are said to have cost $5,000,000. The upholstering was grand beyond description." A member of the infantry, Clifton Parkhurst, from Iowa, said, "We marched for fifteen miles along Lake St. Joseph. The lake was a lovely syl- van flood and around its fertile shores had been one of the garden spots of Louisiana. Even as we gazed, the country to the rear was one vast field of sugar cane and Indian corn. Expensive homes, sugar mills, and cotton plants of great cost looked out upon the placid lake in proud serentity." TENSAS GAZETTE - July 26, 1957 In the appendix of Sarah Dorsey's "Recollection of Henry Watkins Allen" are leaves from the journal of a lady, near Port Gipson (sic), Mississippi, kept during Grant's march upon Vicksburg, via Grand Gulf and Port Gibson. She was an intimate friend of Mrs. Dorsey and of Ex-Governor Allen -one of the most distinguished women of the South, both in intellect, educa- tion, and social position. "At the time of the advance of General Grant down Lake Saint Joseph, she sent her three young daughters (one of them wid- owed during the war), out of the way of the army, feeling that she and their aged father (they were both over three-score years of age) were unable to protect, in their secluded home, these young, beauytiful, helpless wom- en." (Real quick tell me how many three-score years are? Yep, three times twenty, or sixty years. In Civil War days this was considered "aged"). On Tuesday, May 5th, 1863, this lady writes in her diary: "About nine o'clock P.M. a great light in the direction of Watson's: thought the house and gin were on fire..It proved to be Mr. W's cotton, that he had set on fire himself. I do wish ours was burnt!"