Blood on the Bayou: Vicksburg, Port Hudson, and the Trans-Mississippi by Donald S. Frazier (review)

Donald S. Frazier’s latest book chronicles the military and, to a lesser extent, the civilian experience in the trans-Mississippi portion of the famous campaigns for Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson, Louisiana, during the momentous summer of 1863. Early chapters discuss the coming of the war and the military and political developments through the first two years of the conflict. Frazier carefully place those developments in Louisiana in the context of national events. These chapters include basic summaries of the evolution of Federal emancipation policy and strategies for the enlistment of black troops. Frazier ultimately concludes that the recruitment of former slaves into northern regiments eventually became a principal reason for, rather than a result of, Federal military campaigns in the region. Initial chapters offer little new information, but they establish valuable context for the engaging scholarship that follows.

After those early chapters the action picks up considerably and the reader encounters original and important scholarship. Multiple chapters examine the military campaigns west of the Mississippi River, particularly west of Port Hudson. Frazier is at his best in his accounts of numerous battles and skirmishes throughout the Louisiana landscape, including actions at Lafourche Crossing, Brashear City, Fort Butler, and Donaldsonville. The book’s coverage of Confederate attempts to relieve the Port Hudson garrison is particularly strong, and those chapters depict a rather significant Rebel effort that is underappreciated in Civil War history.

Certain chapters merit particular attention. In chapter ten, “Retaking the Lafourche,” Frazier skillfully demonstrates the complicated reality of emancipation. In impressive detail, he explicates the subsistence and health struggles of former slaves, Federal inability to care for freedpeople, and the complex story of numerous freedpeople returning to their former masters under a variety of circumstances. This chapter reveals that the story of the Civil War in the trans-Mississippi theater is worth telling, and how the conflict in that region was as destructive and transformative as anywhere. Similarly, in the fifteenth chapter, “Kock’s Plantation,” Frazier offers a detailed, blow-by-blow examination of that July 13, 1863, engagement that ended any realistic possibility of a westward Federal pursuit of Confederate forces after the fall of Port Hudson. Subsequent chapters chronicle the movement of numerous Confederate soldiers and civilians into Texas and provide a fitting discussion of the aftermath of the important summer of 1863 from a trans-Mississippi perspective.

Overall, Blood on the Bayou represents an admirable attempt to blend analysis of the home front and battlefield. It is ultimately more a military history than anything else, but Frazier has provided the best account of Confederate efforts in Louisiana during that turbulent season. The volume is richly illustrated and features numerous excellent maps. Students of Texas history will find substantial coverage of units from the Lone Star State. For serious scholars of the Civil War in the trans-Mississippi theater, Frazier’s study is indispensable.