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American Press
04-07-2025
- General
- American Press
Local veteran: Louisiana played pivotal role in Revolutionary War
Alfred Cochran, a member of the Mayor's Armed Forces Commission and a Vietnam War veteran, said the then-Spanish Governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez, led military campaigns that captured British forts during the American Revolution, diverting British resources and contributing to the ultimate American victory. (Crystal Stevenson / American Press) During the American Revolution, Louisiana — which was then under Spanish rule — played a significant role in supporting the colonists against British troops. Vietnam War veteran Alfred Cochran, 83, who is also a member of the Mayor's Armed Forces Commission, said the state's role is often overlooked — and it's time that changed. 'Louisiana, and particularly the Battle of Baton Rouge, played a big part in the colonists winning the American Revolution,' he said. Cochran, who recently became a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, said he discovered he had two ancestors involved in the war under the leadership of Bernardo de Galvez while researching his ancestry per the membership requirement. His ancestors were Pierre Antoine Fruge and Fruge's son-in-law, Francois Nicholas Marcantel. Both were of St. Landry Parish and are related to Cochran on his mother's side of the family. 'I always wanted to be a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Revolution helped me find not one but two ancestors and both were part of the Bernardo de Galvez expedition,' he said. Cochran said Galvez — who was then the Spanish governor of Louisiana — lead troops through Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Mobile, Ala., and then Pensacola, Fla., on a southern expedition. 'He took everything the British owned from the southern coast and made the British fight on two fronts, diverting their efforts from the colonists fighting on the East Coast,' Cochran said. The Spanish were able to circumvent the British navy using the Mississippi River to supply the colonial rebels — and Galvez's troops were who kept that line open. 'To help the colonists, they had to get support from both Havana and Mexico,' he said. 'That's how the Spanish were resupplied. There was no way the Spanish could get resupplied themselves without Havana and Mexico.' Cochran said Baton Rouge 'was a real, fortified position right on the Mississippi River.' 'They had to take it to keep shipping open,' he said. 'The whole Atlantic Coast was blockaded and they couldn't get supplies in so they used small paddle boats. They'd bring them all the way to the East Coast on the Mississippi.' Cochran said Marcantel 'wasn't even old enough to pick up a musket' when he joined the war's efforts. He's estimated to have been about 17 at the war's start. 'They were part of the Acadians who were thrown out of Canada by the British so they were very happy to take revenge out on the British when asked,' Cochran said. 'They were living in Opelousas. They had traveled all the way from Canada down to New Orleans, came up the Mississippi and made their way to Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, and became farmers. Galvez came through, recruiting people and they said, 'Oh, yes, we're ready.' They volunteered right off.' Galvez ultimately recruited more than 1,200 men comprised of 170 veteran soldiers, 330 recruits from Mexico and the Canary Islands, 60 militiaman and local citizens, 80 freed slaves, 600 from among Louisiana's German and Acadian immigrants and 160 Native Americans, according to Cochran's research from HistoryNet. The troops marched more than 100 miles through the dense forests and swamps northwest of New Orleans to the recently constructed six-cannon British Fort Bute on the eastern shore of Mississippi, a few miles south of Baton Rouge. Using muskets and cannons, Galvez's troops helped captured Fort Bute on Sept. 7, 1779, signaling the opening of Spanish intervention in the American Revolutionary War. The battle was estimated to have taken place over nine days. 'It was a very short battle,' Cochran said. 'The battles during the American Revolution were not like battles we know today. There were so few people involved — a few hundred would be a big battle at that time. When we got to World War I, World War II and Vietnam we had some serious battles with so many more people involved.' When the Battle of Fort Bute was won, Galvez released his men back to their families. Marcantel went back home to his wife, but his father-in-law marched on with Galvez and continued to fight with him through Pensacola. Following Fort Bute, Galvez and his remaining men launched an artillery barrage on Fort New Richmond in Baton Rouge using cannons he had hauled upriver on flatbeds in a garden on the opposite side of the fort. 'They attacked Baton Rouge and they were raining cannon fire like hail in a south Louisiana thunderstorm and Lt. Col. Alexander Dickson, who was in command of this Baton Rouge fort, couldn't take it any longer and he raised the white flag and surrendered,' Cochran said. 'It must have been a fearsome fight that they put up.' The British were overwhelmed by the wreckage this caused to the fort and proposed a truce — the terms of which included the surrender of both Baton Rouge and Fort Panmure at Natchez, Miss. The fort's capture effectively ended British military control of the lower Mississippi River. 'Galvez was of military mind and determined to win. He was not going to quit at anything,' Cochran said. According to records, Pierre Antoine Fruge stayed with Galvez all the way to the Siege of Pensacola in 1781, which lasted a couple of months. There is no record of him or of Marcantel ever being injured. Cochran said he came across the information while researching his members for the Sons of the American Revolution. 'The more I discovered about Galvez, the more I wanted to learn about this southern expedition,' he said. The majority of his research has come from and other history books. Cochran said his family has a 'very strong' military background. He has these two ancestors who fought in the American Revolution, three grandfathers who fought in the Civil War and he is a Vietnam War veteran. 'We're just all patriotic,' he said. 'In college when they were looking for people to go to Vietnam, I said, 'Yeah, send me.' I wasn't drafted, I volunteered. I was a member of the McNeese advanced ROTC and I graduated with a civil engineering degree and then they commissioned me in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I went in as a second lieutenant and I was discharged as a captain.' Cochran said the victories in Louisiana helped secure the southern flank of the American colonies and contributed to the ultimate success of the American Revolution. 'Louisiana was involved in the American Revolution and I think more people need to know that.'
American Press
26-04-2025
- General
- American Press
The Informer: Unique memorial honored those who died in Vietnam
Last month, the city of Lake Charles Mayor's Armed Forces Commission unveiled the official Louisiana Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the lakefront. The three-sided memorial lists the names of the 885 Louisiana Vietnam War casualties. The memorial is actually the second one in Lake Charles dedicated to those who died in Vietnam. In 1968, the Young Men's Business Club of Lake Charles dedicated the Vietnam Conflict Memorial to the memory of Louisiana servicemen who died in the war. At the time, it was said to be the only memorial of its kind in the world. The unique monument also happened to be — at the time — the world's tallest bird house. The 120-foot tall memorial had 46 aluminum bird houses with 1,116 nesting compartments that could accommodate 5,280 purple martins, according to a March 11, 1977, American Press article. The monument was dedicated on Nov. 9, 1968, with the dedicatory address given by Navy Lt. Dieter Dengler, who served in Vietnam. The pink marble marker at the base of the monument reads: 'In commemoration, we, the citizens of Louisiana, dedicate this memorial to peace, to our fellow Americans who have served or died in the armed forces of our country during the Vietnam conflict. By their devotion to our beloved nation have upheld, protected and defended the principles of true Americanism, that liberty and freedom might not perish from the earth.' Gene Dolan, the YMBC chairman of the project, told the American Press that more than 10 years after the memorial's dedication, he continued to receive mail from around the world about it. He said the monument was also featured in articles that ran in newspapers 'from Japan to Rhodesia to Europe.' 'Purple martins are a peace bird,' Dolan said. 'With the Vietnam War, everybody wanted peace so we gave them birds.' Dolan said the YMBC began selling purple martin bird houses in 1966 to raise money for the memorial tower. Even after the tower was erected, the group continued to sell the bird houses and used the money raised to plant trees and shrubbery in a triangular land area around the tower's base. Though the land on which the memorial sat was owned by the state, the city of Lake Charles maintained the grounds even after the YMBC planted cedars, palms, flowering pushes, a Yucca plant and palm trees around the memorial. Dolan said permission to erect the memorial on grounds came from Gov. John McKeithen. On Sept. 17, 2005, Hurricane Rita destroyed the tower and its birdhouses. Afterward, the city formed what is now Veterans Memorial Park on the site.
