A Pretty Rowdy Bunch

[TerryB]

Coppens Louisiana Zouave Bttn

1st Louisiana Zouave Battalion

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Confederate Regiments & Batteries * Louisiana * 1st Louisiana Zouave Battalion

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The 1st Louisiana Zouave Battalion was organized at New Orleans in March of 1861 and was disbanded in southern Virginia in December of 1864. Of the original enrollment of 616 officers and enlisted men 52 were killed in action, 26 died of disease, and 2 died in accidents.

One company was English-speaking Americans, a second was French-speaking Creole. Many of the battalion were foreign-born, including a large number (about 20%) of Swiss origin, as well as Germans, Italians, Spanish and Irish. While recruiting booths were opened in the city jails of New Orleans most of the battalion's men were workmen. Many of them were experienced veterans of the French Army in the Crimean War, and orders were given in French.

1861​

MarchJefferson Davis personally awarded Georges Auguste Gaston Coppens permission to form a Zouave battalion and gave him a commission as Lieutenant Colonel. Coppens had attended the French Marine Academy and was a well known duelist. Two of Coppens's brothers joined the battalion: Marie Alfred as commander of Company F, who eventually became battalion commander; and Leon as a Sergeant. Their father, Baron August De Coppens, was appointed Quartermaster. Major Waldemar Hylsted was appointed second in command. He was Swiss, and had served with the United States in the Mexican War, the French in the Crimean War, and as a Captain in the Danish Army. He would eventually be succeeded by Fulgence de Bordenave, a French veteran of the Algerian and Crimean Wars who commanded Company B, and who spoke no English.March 27About 600 men in six companies were designated as the 1st Louisiana Zouave Battalionfor twelve months service at Camp Walker, near New Orleans. They were under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Georges A. G. Coppens and Major Waldemar Hylested. Their Zouave uniform consisted of a dark blue jacket with red trim, dark blue vest with yellow trim over red flannel wool shirts, baggy red pantaloons, and black leather jambiers worn over white gaiters, all topped with a red kepi. They carried a blanket role rather than a knapsack. Each company was assigned a female Vivandiere whose duty it was to "succor the men and tend the wounded." They were outfitted with a round hat with a colorful plume, an extra full jacket with bloused sleeves, striped skirt, and black leather jambiers over white gaiters. Each carried a barrel canteen and was armed with a sword or pistol.MaySent to Pensacola, Florida. The battalion was accompanied by a large number of female camp followers and women to cook, wash, and clean their quarters. They were quartered in the U.S. Marine barracks at the Warrington Naval Yard. It was in a mosquito infested swamp, with drilling carried out in heat and humidity. To make matters worse, they had not been paid.June 1-9

Movement to Virginia

Moved by train to Virginia. The officers had their own car at the rear of the train, and the men used the occasion to drink heavily. At Garland, Alabama, the train stopped and the officers walked into town to find breakfast. The men uncoupled the officers' car and rode off in the train.

After their astonished officers saw their train disappearing from town, they commandeered an engine and set off in pursuit. They caught up in Montgomery, where the men were holding "a drunken spree of looting, robbing, and harassing the civilians." They men had just been rounded up at bayonet point by the 1st Georgia infantry Regiment when the officers arrived and violently forced the men back to the train.

The men cut loose again in Columbia, South Carolina, where they "ran wild through the streets." One enlisted man was shot dead by an officer when he refused an order and another died in an accident. The men were again forcibly returned to the train, but insisted on riding on top of and between cars, losing a few men to a low bridge or being mutilated when falling under the train. Nine men were lost on the trip to Petersburg. When reaching that town one local described them as "the most savage looking crowd I ever saw."

After arriving in Richmond the men were housed on the second floor of Glazbrook's Warehouse. They tied their sashes together to climb out of the second floor windows, leading to many incidents of robbery and fighting. One favorite activity was to order a large meal in a restaurant and at the end to tell the owner to bill the government. The battalion had still not been paid.

 

[RedRover]

I always enjoyed this photograph of their parade in Pensacola in 1861, especially with the "vivandiere" distributing refreshment at left.