A sweet and eerie ride

We are now in Baton Rouge, arriving about 2 PM in what seemed like a ghost town. Turns out LSU is playing Alabama at home, so the streets are deserted. It made for a sweet ride into downtown.

Our sunny and cloudless skies continue, although it is still cold. There was a frost overnight and when we started our ride, at noon, it was still only 55 degrees. Carl and I do not have the clothes for this unexpected intrusion of northern weather to the Deep South. The prediction for the upcoming week is continued fair skies with cooler than normal temperatures. Nonetheless, we prefer this to sweltering.

As we only had a 35 mile ride today, we decided to visit an historic plantation in St. Francisville before setting out for Baton Rouge. “Rosedown” was built in 1835 of local cypress and cedar by Daniel and Martha Turnbull at a cost of $13, 109.20. The furnishings for the whole home, which are all still in the house, were custom made in Philadelphia for $900. Any single piece from the house would fetch more than that today.

In its heyday Rosedown was one of the largest cotton plantations in the south, with 3500 acres and over 250 slaves. It survived the civil war largely unscathed, largely due to Martha Turnbull, who reportedly held off Yankee looters by stripping off her clothes and allowing herself to be “surprised” in her knickers. The Yankees apparently would retire in disarray with profuse apologies.

After the war the plantation remained in the family until 1955. It was then bought by an Exxon Oil heiress, Catherine Underwood, who spent $10 million restoring it and opening it to the public. Besides the classic white columned plantation house, there are marvelous formal gardens reminiscent of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. Martha Turnbull lived until age 95, and supervising the gardens until the day she died.

Speaking of the Civil War, now that we are traversing the Mississippi River and there are historical markers noting engagements. Yesterday, near Morganza, we passed a battlefield commemorating a Confederate victory where 50 Yankees and two cannons were captured. No mention of casualties. Then today we rode past Port Hudson, the last place on the Mississippi to surrender, five days after Vicksburg fell. It withstood a 40 day siege, where the confederates, out of supplies, were forced to eat their mules, their horses and finally subsist on rats. Conditions were not much better for the northern besiegers, who lay in ditches and earthworks, subject to grapeshot and sniper fire from the confederates who held the higher ground. It was a war of attrition, foreshadowing the trenches of World War I. From a history of the siege:

"Port Hudson was the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River and the site of the longest siege in American military history. Located 250 miles downriver of Vicksburg, Port Hudson was necessary to complete the Union's control of the river. Its surrender to federal forces on July 9, 1863, after almost two months of attacks, opened up all of the Mississippi and divided the Confederacy in two.

The siege of Port Hudson affected the Civil War and the men who fought there in a number of ways. The surrender gave the Union control of the Mississippi River, cutting off important states such as Arkansas and Texas. Both sides suffered heavy casualties: about 5,000 Union men were killed or wounded, and an additional 4,000 fell prey to disease or sunstroke; Gardner's Confederate forces suffered around 700 casualties, several hundred of whom died of disease. And on both sides, even many of those who survived found their view of war permanently changed.”


There is a connection between Port Hudson and Rosedown Plantation. Martha Turnbull noted in her diary that a number of her slaves had left the plantation and enlisted in The First Louisiana, the first regiment of freed slaves to fight in the war. Again from the history book:

"African-American regiments from Louisiana who fought at Port Hudson on behalf of the Union were the first black units in the Civil War to engage in large-scale combat against white soldiers. The First Louisiana, made up primarily of free men of color, and the Second and Third Louisiana, composed of both free blacks and former slaves, proved their bravery by making several charges across open fields near Port Hudson. Although the charges failed, their actions laid to rest the attitude prevalent among whites that blacks would not fight. Newspaper accounts of their bravery and military capabilities helped convince northerners to accept black soldiers in the Union army."

Our sweet ride today cruised by the sites of much suffering and death from the past. Pondering this gives me an eerie feeling.

To see the map of our trip thus far, you can open the following link:

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/-san-diego/363128901062478140