Civil War Battlefield Conservation in Louisiana

Grant's Canal

Grant’s Canal was part of the Union strategy to open the Mississippi River. The canal was begun to enable boats to move past the Confederate guns at Vicksburg but was never completed. Instead, Rear Admiral David D. Porter’s fleet ran the gauntlet on two nights in April 1863, met Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s men who had marched south through Louisiana, and ferried them across the river below Vicksburg. Grant attacked Vicksburg from the east and forced the Confederates to surrender on July 4, 1863 – the final victory in his brilliant Vicksburg campaign.

The Burney Long Family (RWB, Inc.) donated to the Fund the last remaining section of the canal constructed as part of the U.S. strategy to control the Mississippi River. The Fund presented it as a gift to the Vicksburg National Military Park.

Port Hudson

African American troops led by their officers made their first major assault in the Civil War in the battle of Port Hudson on May 27, 1863. The courage of these men, the First and Third Louisiana Native Guards, sparked widespread and positive articles in newspapers in the North. As a result, African American enlistments increased, and by 1865 there were more than 185,000 in the United States Army.

The Fund purchased a 256-acre property using its Battlefield Revolving Fund established by grants from The Gilder Foundation. Contributions from a number of partners made possible the gift of these historic acres to the Port Hudson State Historic Site to honor the vital role of African American soldiers during the Civil War.

Major grants from Freeport McMoRan, the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Nau, III, the J. Aron Charitable Foundation, Georgia Pacific, John S. McIlhenny, Cecil J. Blache, Burden Foundation, Ethyl Corporation, RJR Nabisco, The Civil War Preservation Trust, The Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites, and the Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation made this conservation effort possible.