Remembering Union Fort Butler (16AN36) in Southern Louisiana

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The importance of Fort Butler (16AN36) in Donaldsonville, Louisiana and the African Americans who defended it during the American Civil War (1861-1865) has been minimized. Referred to as “contraband”, formerly enslaved African Americans helped build, maintain and successfully defend the Union fort against a much larger Confederate force that attempted to capture this strategic position in 1863. Under the auspices of flood control, the privately owned site located at the confluence of the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche was nearly destroyed in 1902-1904 to build a levee, followed by additional modifications and a pump station in 1955. A series of individual monuments at the now invisible fort memorialize the pump engineer, Confederates, African Americans, and the battle. TerraXplorations, Inc. continues to investigate Fort Butler and how it is remembered even as a new pump station is being built on its remains.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow