A Hero's Death: Col. Leopold L. Armant at Mansfield

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Col. Leopold Ludger Armant

In the evening of April 8, 1864, Col. Leopold L. Armant stood with his regiment, the 18th Louisiana Consolidated Infantry, behind a rail fence. To their front was a long stretch of open ground for about half a mile or less, and the Union troops of Col. William J. Landram Division behind a rail fence on the other side. Soon getting the order to advance, Col. Armant answered, "The order to charge will be executed; but charging that battery is leading my men to death." Soon all hell would break loose on that field.

Leopold Ludger Armant, of St. James Parish, Louisiana, was the son of Adjutant General and Louisiana state Senator Jean Seraphim (John S.) Armant and his wife, Louise Amelie Fusilier de la Claire. He grew up at Armant Plantation, which was then and is still under cultivation as a sugar plantation. Armant graduated from Georgetown University with an M.A. in 1855, and attended the University of Virginia in session 32. He then attended the University of Louisiana, graduating in 1858. Prior to the Civil War, Armant was a lawyer, and served in the Louisiana state legislature representing St. James Parish.

When the Civil War began, Armant entered Confederate service as a 1st Lieutenant in Company A, 18th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry. The 18th Louisiana was begun at Camp Moore near New Orleans in Oct. 1861. It was consolidated with the 10th (“Yellow Jackets”) Infantry Battalion and designated the 18th Consolidated Infantry Regiment at Simmesport, LA, on 14 Nov. 1863. Armant advanced quickly through the ranks as Captain (April 1862), Major (May 1862) and Colonel (July 1862). Silas Grisamore said Armant was much admired and respected by the men of the 18th: “In the campaign on the Teche which followed and the fights at Bisland, the colonel always was found at the head of his regiment and bore himself gallantly whenever occasion presented. In the long marches which the 18th Regimentmade in northern Louisiana, Colonel Armant accompanied his men, sharing with them the privations and sufferings to which they were subject.”

During the second half of March 1864, a combined force from the Union Army of the Gulf and navy led by Major General Nathaniel P. Banks ascended the Red River with the goal of defeating the rebel forces in Louisiana and capturing Shreveport, known as the Red River Campaign. By April 1 Union forces had occupied Grand Ecore and Natchitoches. While the accompanying gunboat fleet with a portion of the infantry continued up the river, the main force followed the road inland toward Mansfield, where Banks knew his opponent was concentrating.

Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor, in command of the Confederate forces in Louisiana, had retreated up the Red River in order to connect with reinforcements from Texas and Arkansas. Taylor selected a clearing a few miles south of Mansfield as the spot where he would make a stand against Banks' forces. Sending his cavalry to harass the Union vanguard as it approached, Taylor called his infantry divisions forward.

The morning of April 8 found Banks' army stretched out along a single road through the woods between Natchitoches and Mansfield. When the cavalry at the front of the column found the Confederates taking a strong position along the edge of a clearing, it stopped and called for infantry support. Riding to the front, Banks decided that he would fight Taylor at that spot; he ordered all his infantry to hurry up the road. It became a race to see which side could bring its forces to the to bear first.

Taylor arranged his army of 8,800 men in formation for battle. His force consisted of Maj. Gen. John G. Walker's Texas Division, three Texas cavalry brigades under Brig. Gen. Tom Green, and another small division under Brig. Gen. Alfred Mouton which was composed of one Louisiana brigade and one Texas brigade. The 18th Louisiana Infantry were in the Louisiana Brigade - Mouton's old brigade - then commanded by Colonel Henry Gray. The brigade consisted of the Consolidated Crescent Regiment, the 18th Louisiana Infantry, and 28th Louisiana Infantry. Both the Crescent Regiment and 18th Louisiana had seen heavy action at Shiloh two years before, as well as in the Bayou Teche Campaign in April 1863. The 28th Louisiana had seen action in a number of small skirmishes in Louisiana, including the capture of the gunboat USS Diana on the Atchafalaya.

As the day went on, Mouton's Division skirmished with Brig. Gen. Albert L. Lee's Cavalry Brigade until Col. William J. Landram Division reached the other side of the field. Landram's Division took position behind a rail fence with an open field to their front. Behind them the ground slopped gently upward on what was known as Honeycutt Hill, the Mansfield Road running across it. At about 4:00 p.m., Richard Taylor sent orders to Mouton to commence the attack. Mouton's Division advanced toward the Federal lines before the other troops on his flank got word. All the field officers decided to go into the fight mounted, including Col. Armant - a mistake that would cost them dearly.

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As the division stepped off into the field they came under heavy fire; shot and shell tore through their ranks and the officers began to fall. Lt. Col. Franklin H. Clack of the Crescent Regiment was mortally wounded. Col. James Beard saw his regiment's colors fall; grabbing them, he led his men forward until he was shot and killed. Next to pick up the Crescent Regiment's flag was Maj. Mercer Canfield, then Capt. Seth R. Field, both suffering the same fate at Col. Beard.

Col. Armant continued to lead his 18th Louisiana in the charge under the hail of fire, his men falling at every step. The brigade ran into a ravine where they halted for a few minutes to regroup and reform their ranks. Soon they went forward again, into the storm. Col. Armant was not more than 50 or 100 yards from the enemy's line when his horse was killed, but he stood back up and continued on. Seeing the colors of the 18th drop, he immediately rushed over to pick them up, cheering his boys forward. Just a few yards from the enemy, at the front of the regiment with the colors in hand, Col. Armant was instantly riddled with bullets. One officer said that when he last saw Col. Armant he was still struggling to hold up the flag.

Even with most of their officers dead or wounded on the field, the Louisianians continued their advance. They ran up to the Federal line behind the rail fence and delivered a destructive volley right into their faces at close range. While the 18th Louisiana and Crescent regiment stopped to trade fire with the Federals for a short time, the 28th Louisiana was said to have bolted ahead without stopping, and therefore suffered the least casualties out of the three regiments. Somewhere in the chaos rode Brig. Gen. Mouton, was also mortally wounded. Accounts vary as to how he was killed. One participant claims that he was guarding a group of prisoners when one man picked up a musket and shot him, while others claim that he was killed in the charge.

The Louisiana Brigade continued its advance, driving back the Federal line from the rail fence, through some woods and over Honeycutt Hill. Landrum's line completely collapsed and fled back down the Mansfield Road with the Rebs right on their tail. Brig. Gen. Robert Cameron’s Division of the Thirteenth Army Corps was rushed up to hold off the Confederate onslaught and protect the Federal baggage train, but they were quickly swept up in the fray and routed as well. After the Federals had been driven back for miles, the Nineteenth Corps - commanded by Brig. Gen. William H. Emory - finally arrived on the field and set up on a hill across the Mansfield Road, putting an end to the Confederate advance.

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Gray's Louisiana Brigade had lost over 400 men, about 40% of its strength. The Crescent Regiment suffered the loss of 57 men killed and 134 wounded, and the 18th Louisiana 19 killed and 75 wounded. The casualties of the 28th Louisiana were not reported, but they are most likely similar to the others. The Louisianans were the first to attack, first to break the Federal lines, and first to draw blood at Mansfield. What drove them to fight so hard must have been the fact that they were fighting on their home soil, some men literally being just a few miles from their homes when engaged at Mansfield.

After the battle Armant was buried in the Mansfield City Cemetery. His body was later reentered in Saint Ann Catholic Cemetery, St. James Parish, Louisiana.

Sources:
The Red River Campaign: Union and Confederate Leadership in the War in Louisiana by Theodore P. Savas, David A. Woodbury, and Gary D. Joiner
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=42531097
http://members.tripod.com/j_richard/18th_leopold_armant.html
http://uvastudents.wordpress.com/2011/05/28/leopold-ludger-armant-10-june-1835-8-apr-1864/

Read more about the history of the 18th Louisiana Consolidated Regiment here:
http://members.tripod.com/j_richard/18th_history_the_regiment.html
 
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Armant Plantation--A historic marker about Colonel Leopold Armant stands amid huge moss-draped oaks at the site of Armant Plantation. The land, once part of the second village of the Bayougoula Indians, was acquired by Joseph Blanpain in 1740 for a vacherie—cattle ranch. Jean Baptiste Armant purchased the property before 1800. In 1845 J. B. Armant introduced on his plantation the largest Rillieux sugar- processing equipment that had yet been made. Jean Baptiste the son, died in 1854 and is buried in St. James Cemetery. John Burnside owned Armant before and after the Civil War and left it in 1881 to Oliver Beirne who in turn sold it to William Miles. The house was destroyed in 1969 after being vacant for more than ten years. The land currently is owned by Southdown Sugar.

http://genealogytrails.com/lou/plantatons.html

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...this flag design is based on a "small torn section of the regimental battle flag" which is currently on display in the Memorial Hall Confederate Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana. May 19, 1865...when the 18th Regiment was disbanded the flag was torn into ten pieces and a piece givento each of the ten company commanders. This tearing up into sections was done so as to forgo the humiliating experience of surrendering the battle flag (colors) to the opposing forces. (Placement of Battle Inscriptions is speculative and based on similar Confederate battle flags of the same period.)
http://members.tripod.com/j_richard/18th_history_flags.html

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