Customer Reviews

Tirailleurs: A History of The 4th Louisiana and The Acadians of Company H

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4 star:		(3)
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The author has carefully researched and presented a history of the Confederate Fourth Louisiana Regiment and its Company H, comprised mostly of Acadians from West Baton Rouge Parish. He focuses primarily on Company H but does not neglect the larger context of the regiment's concurrent experiences.

Company H, a Civil War infantry unit of about 100 men, organized initially as the Tirailleurs, (pronounced TEE-ray-your), was mostly Acadians. That is a distinct social class in antebellum south Louisiana derived from French extract Canadians driven out of Nova Scotia (Acadia) around 1755. The Tirailleurs and 4th Louisiana were Southerners to the core. Young patriots who at the war's beginning were itching to sally forth and obtain glory for themselves and the cause while defending hearth and home from Yankees.

The intrinsic value of this work is in revealing the daily life of at least one Confederate infantry unit, complete with their ruminations on the war, emotional swings, victories and disappointments. I particularly liked the way author Richey eventually traces the arc of each man's life and death from the company's inception to their demise on the battlefield or beyond. None of them are left out. That alone may offer lines of research for someone tracing a particular genealogy but more than that you get to know these young men and are affected by their experiences.

Another reason to follow this particular unit is that they happened to be at some of the more famous locations familiar to Civil War buffs, such as the Hornet's Nest, Shiloh Church, the first siege of Vicksburg and the battles around Atlanta. The Tirailleurs had guard and provost duty at less illuminated places such as Mobile and Baton Rouge, from which the Civil War student can glean additional bits.

If you are familiar with south Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, you will be interested in the level of detail that Richey provides about familiar landscapes, locations, sights and sounds. There are many gems found in the details.

Overall the book is fairly well written. Unfortunately the author tends to be tied to a clipped sentence style that is linear and chronological like reading a diary. To some degree Richey uses reflection, first person narrative and omniscience to flesh out the story but generally it's like reading a diary. I found several editorial mistakes that typically occur in self published or cottage books. A severe criticism is the hand drawn maps and hand drawn pictures of generals mentioned in the book. There are some historical photos, such as that of Sgt. Trasimond Landry, a central figure of Company H but it is as if the author ran out of funds or permission to use available photos and decided to trace the picture instead. Very crude. However, the appendices are helpful.

The alert reader may find a half dozen or so instances where the author belies his personal Confederate sympathies and if inclined might be offended at the anti-Yankee or anti-Lincoln bias that slips out. It didn't bother me and doesn't detract from the book's value because it doesn't change the veracity of the narrative. The book is interesting and a real accomplishment of research at the company and regimental level. I will especially use it to fill in the gaps around divisional movements in big battles and to get a feel for the single soldier's experience.

This book is about many of my relatives from Port Allen and the area around that fought in the war. Thanks Amazon you did it again.

I've just begun reading this book, and it should prove very interesting for anyone who has some ancestry from the West Baton Rouge Parish. Although there are sources sited for much of this book, I found some information regarding my family that does not reference what sources were used. I'd like to know how to contact the author and find the sources that were used for this specific information.

Dr. Richey has assembled a great amount of information here that really brings the subtle nuances of the day to day operations of the 4th Louisiana to light. As a disclaimer, Dr. Richey is my father in law, but that shouldn't dissuade any serious scholar of the battles fought by the 4th or anyone looking for geneological history from the region from checking out this book. The bibliography alone is worth the price of admission.

It is about time someone published a book about this State-loyal Southern regiment. This is a very interesting book for those wishing to follow a Confederate regiment raised outside of Virginia, and fighting in the Civil War in armies other than in the Army of Virginia. Yes, many, many battles were fought outside of Virginia and the men involved on both sides fought just as hard, bled just as much and died just as hard as in the Virginia battles.

My only concern about this book is the inclusion of non-documented or foot-noted quotes and actions attributed to some of the participants. Many footnotes, when the source is reviewed relate to the over-all fact of a battle, but they don't relate to a particular described action or to what is said. While these activities or sayings certainly may have happened (they do add excitement to the scene), it would be ideal to include a source reference.