| A Confederate Map Located I continued my research still looking for the single "smoking gun" I was not to find. Then I was told by a friend about a map he had seen in the book "Vigilantes of the Attakapas" which featured parish maps from the Civil War era. It was his understanding, the maps were in the Louisiana State Archives. I had previously viewed maps from the Historic New Orleans Collection and was anxious to see any map of the time period before or during the Civil War. It was Monday, December 15, 2003, just one day before the LCG Council was to meet and vote on the decision to accept the boundary line recommended by the Louisiana State Land Office from the final report by John Evans, Jr. Needless to say, I wanted someone to throw me a bone. I just needed to know what the Parish looked like near the time of the carving of Vermilion out of Lafayette Parish. On my way to Baton Rouge I stopped to speak with local officials to drum up support for tabling the vote until such time a thorough job of research could me made. I stopped to visit with another friend and acquaintance who had a certified copy of maps of eastern Lafayette Parish from the very collection I was traveling to Baton Rouge to see. I asked for and reveived a copy of the certification page which gave me the reference numbers and headed for the Archives. I was so excited,I did not looked at the maps he gave me. Once in the Archives I produced the reference numbers and the clerk retrieved a box containing a stack of 11" x 17" copies of thirty or more parishes. The Maps were coded as maps taken by the Union Troops and were confederate maps. When I inquired I was told the maps were removed from the Parishes by General Banks and other Union forces as they made their way through the area in 1863 and 1864. This has long been a tactic of warfare. The maps are usefull to determine strategic data for the opposing force, but by removing the maps and sometimes destroying the infrastructure and official records, it would create havoc for the enemy. This was done in Baton Rouge as the State Capitol Building was razed and burned. These maps had ultimately become the property of the War Department in Washington, D.C. and were turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers before finding a home in the National Archives in the Nation's Capitol. No one knows for certain when the copies arrived in Baton Rouge, but it is safe to assume it would have been in the 1970's or early 80's at the latest. When I located the Lafayette Parish Maps, I began to piece together the copies so I could have a full view of the Parish. After all the pages were in place, spread out on the undersized table, I saw for the first time, the view of the Southern Boundary that will always be firmly planted in my minds eye. Just as some of the maps I had reviewed and downloaded earlier in my research, the south- western boundary dipped well into Township 11 South, Range 3 East. "BINGO!" This was the bone I was looking for. I quickly put together the map of Vermilion Parish I located in the box of maps. Again I spread out the copies and put the puzzle together and, "Eureka", it matched so closely with the Lafayette Parish Map that surely LCG Council would take note and see fit to halt the vote. I spent the rest of the afternoon making legible copies and having them certified by the Secretary of State. As I drove home I was encouraged that this was surely the begining of a new way to research the boundary. The map had some curious findings and although it was simple in line, it was obviously a very well drawn tracing of the General Land Office tracings of Townships in Lafayette Parish. The "Natural Landmarks" were clearly labeled. Just as in the General Land Office Surveys, Coulee Isle des Cannes had two names and both were represented, Coulee des Noix and Coulee isle des Cannes. Coulee Isle des Cannes also had an apparent North to South leg and an East to South West leg, which was also known as Coulee des Noix. There was no time to study the maps in detail, however I did want to attempt to locate the boundaries according to these maps and overlay them onto the aerial map that the State Land Office along with Bill Campbell, Assistant Director of Public Works for LCG and Eugene Sellers, with the Vermilion Parish Police Jury had provided as the final boundary of south Lafayette Parish according to " Act No. 81 of the Louisiana State Legislature" of 1844. On Tuesday, December 16, 2003, I spent the better part of the morning with Louisiana Digital Imaging, scanning and plotting the overlay, and making copies to produce for each of the LCG Council members and a copy for the Clerk to enter into the record. 11 |
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| Lafayette - Vermilion Parish Boundary Issue |
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| Laf Verm Index Page |
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