"Road to the Last Mississippi Barricade:
​The Confederate 1863 Campaign to Relieve Port Hudson" 

 
In 1863, the Confederate high command was desperate to find a solution to lift the Union sieges of Vicksburg and Port Hudson on the Mississippi River.  All available forces in the Trans-Mississippi West theater, and some in the Western theater, were tasked with a grand campaign to threaten Ulysses S. Grant's and Nathaniel Banks’ besieging armies directly or indirectly.  To aid the entrapped Confederate forces at Port Hudson, this meant interdicting Banks’ 100-mile supply line with New Orleans.  The results of this late Spring to Summer campaign were four battles and a river blockade that tested the physical strength and morale of the Union occupation forces.

Dr. Stephen Michot is a retired Professor of History and Director of Criminal Justice at Nicholls State University holding a Ph.D. from Mississippi State University. Over the past 40 years, he has served in law enforcement and security, the military with a tour of duty in Iraq, and in education. His publications include Lafourche Country II; Lafourche Country III: “Friction in War: The Effects of Climate, Disease, and Morale at the Battle of Labadieville”; “The African-American Experience in Louisiana’s Lafourche Region during the Civil War”; “In Relief of Port Hudson Richard Taylor’s 1863 Offensive”; and “War is Still Raging in this Part of the Country: Oath-taking, Conscription, and Guerrilla War in Louisiana’s Lafourche Region.”
Dr. Michot has served on the boards of the Louisiana Historical Association, the Historic New Orleans Collection, the Young-Sanders Center, YMCA, Faculty Senate, and University of Louisiana Systems Board of Supervisors Academic Affairs Committee and Faculty Advisory Council.

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