The Civil War in Sugar Country, Part II: “Our Country is Overrun,” 1862-1863
Portrait of Major General William Buel Franklin of the Union Army. General Franklin and his troops occupied the Shadows and its grounds from November 1863-January 1864. Library of Congress 2018666420.
By late fall 1862, the harvesting of the sugar crop was well underway. Teche country residents saw not only the familiar cane carts, but also carts loaded down with trunks containing the belongings of planters fleeing the Bayou Lafourche and lower Teche country regions in advance of the Union Army.
Reluctant to abandon her home and subject her family and enslaved people to the hardships of the road and the unknown, Allie Weeks Meade forwarded trunks and boxes to her mother in New Iberia while she stayed behind on her plantation.
Though the Weeks family did not, at that time, join the steady stream of Confederate sympathizers on the road to northern Louisiana and Texas, they watched and worried daily. It seems likely that both Allie’s and Mary Weeks Moore’s households were in constant upheaval with many of their belongings packed and loaded on carts, ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
The 1862 sugarcane crop was smaller than the previous year’s recording breaking one. With the Union Army in control of New Orleans and blocking the coast, planters were forced to find some way of marketing their harvest, which included blockade running. Often under the cover of darkness, fast, low-profile boats were used to illegally transport goods out of the port, evading naval ships.
By May 1863, Allie decided it was time to leave her home and traveled with Charley Weeks and his family as far as Mansfield, Louisiana before continuing to Texas. Allie hoped to settle in “wheat country” where she might find work for her enslaved people.
Allie’s older brother William Frederick Weeks remained on the Grand Cote plantation for as long as possible. On May 20, 1863, he wrote to John Moore. “The federals have gone, and we are occupying a curious position, being neither confederates nor federals, that is in point of law. We are not willing to be ruled by the Yankee rule, & dare not take our original position because we are likely at any time to have a Yankee force sent among us. A vast number of negroes have gone off with the Yankees. The able-bodied men were put in the army, while the women were sent to the vacant plantation on Lafourche.”
Mail became increasingly irregular. Mary sat in her parlor in New Iberia worrying about not only when the Union Army might appear, but also her absent husband and children, particularly Allie. At the same time, Allie worried about her mother and friends back home. Allie and others that fled shared letters and unconfirmed accounts of the war. “We heard that the Yankees had all left the Teche and returned to the Bay…The reports are so conflicting. The last news is that Grant has surrendered. I trust it is so.”
By mid-June Allie heard from Judge Moore. “I was very much relieved to hear that you had heard from home & that all were well, but much distressed to hear of the desolation throughout the whole country. I trust the enemy did not get to the island. I hope in that way Bud saved his crop, and mules, horses, etc…”
In Texas, many who fled in advance of the Union Army anxiously awaited word that it was safe to return home. As early as summer 1863, hearing the Union forces had come and gone in Teche country, some Louisianians headed back. Allie and John thought they were being “rather hasty. I would prefer waiting awhile. A great deal depends on our success in Vicksburg. If we are defeated there I don’t know what will become of us.”
While some who fled returned, William finally decided to leave Grand Cote in June 1863, taking twenty-nine enslaved men from the Island to Houston where he “obtained a contract to furnish X [cross] ties to the Railroad at 65 cents each, cutting them along side the track.”
In August, Mary, in poor health and mourning the death of her grandson David Weeks Magill who was killed at Vicksburg, wrote asking John Moore to come home. “I seem abandoned by all…. My very heart sickens with despondency, everything seems so changed.” Unfortunately, more bad news was on the way. In early August, Allie’s son Everard Meade fell sick and died within the week, depriving Mary of “another favorite Grandson.” In September, Mary’s daughter-in-law Mary Palfrey Weeks wrote to her husband, William, asking him to come home while he still could and take care of business on the Island. “It is generally supposed our country will soon be invaded again & you may be cut off from us altogether.”
In the meantime, Judge Moore decided to give in to his wife’s request and returned home. On October 15, Allie wrote “I am glad to hear that you are going home where you will be comfortable again.” Allie also intended to go home as soon as she was sure her enslaved workers were “comfortably fixed for the winter” in Texas.
Stereograph image of the Prairie House, c. 1880s. From the collection of the Shadows-on-the-Teche.
But by the end of October, William knew the Union Army was again in Teche country, but reassured John, “So far our family has not suffered. Ma was well, so was my family, they were in New Iberia with Ma. They will do well if they are allowed to keep what provisions I left at the P.[rairie] house, and are allowed to transport it to New Town. Those places where the army camped have suffered very much, many negroes have been conscripted….” William did not believe Texas would be invaded, and he also believed “Negro property will be safe here when not one is left a slave in Louisiana,” so he was in no hurry to return.
Allie also received word the Union forces were back and knew she could not return home as planned. “I feel so anxious about Ma, & all the family that are in the enemy’s line. I fear they will have nothing left to eat.”
But the mail and the news were, as Allie had earlier noted, “conflicting.” Two weeks later, on November 18, 1863, William expected to return home soon for he thought “our country free of Yankees.”
A month later, Allie, still in Texas, wrote a letter to her mother, still not knowing about the Union occupation. “I am anxious to be with you, my dear mother, if I thought I would reach you safely, I would be willing to go under a flag of truce….” Her mother never received Allie’s letter because Mary died December 29, 1863.
A letter written January 13, 1864 by Alfred Weeks reported the details of Mary’s death and the effect of the occupation. “Dr. Dungan had recommended her [Mary Moore] to leave home for a few days, My wife [Nannie Weeks] had made all the arrangements to take her to our house & Mrs. Conrad [Mary’s sister-in-law] was to remain at home. Ma seemed much pleased by the idea. Mrs. Weeks [William’s wife] was with her as much as she could be, it being very difficult to get passes [to allow travel through Union lines]. She went up on the day of her death, and Ma was up & very cheerful, had that day received a letter from you [John Moore] stating that you were well & that you [were] on your way home. She sat up until about one o’clock at night talking to Mrs. Conrad & my wife, seemed very cheerful, laughed at the Yankees, & went to bed with a candle & a new book someone had sent her. My wife went into the room early in the morning & she seemed to be sleeping so gently that she would not wake her, but after awhile she returned & endeavored to arouse her, but her soul had gone…”
“They did not go into my house [Belle Grove]. Mary, Wm’s wife, was forced to leave home [Grand Cote] & lost somewhat, but to no great extent I hope….”
“Our country, I fear, is destined to starve…All our cattle, nearly all the hogs & sheep have been destroyed. All the fenceing [sic] has gone, many places all the buildings…We can do nothing next year.”
[Continue Reading for Part III]
Originally published in the Shadows Service League newsletter (Vol. 17, No. 7), July 1995.
