John Galbraith Pratt (March 31, 1816 – July 10, 1866) was a brigadier general of the Louisiana state militia during the
Confederate States of America. Somewhat unusually for a militant Confederate, he was born and died in
Connecticut, United States.
Pratt's family moved from
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
to
Saint Landry Parish, Louisiana
St. Landry Parish (french: Paroisse de Saint-Landry) is a List of parishes in Louisiana, parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 Census, the population was 83,384. The parish seat is Opelousas, L ...
in 1845, where Pratt owned a
sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
plantation.
At the time of his death his "magnificent plantation" at Bellevue was said to be "eight hundred superficial
arpents
An arpent (, sometimes called arpen) is a unit of length and a unit of area. It is a pre-Metric system, metric French units of measurement, French unit based on the Roman Ancient Roman units of measurement#Length, ''actus''. It is used in Quebec, ...
" with a "splendid dwelling house" and "complete improvements." Pratt was a "delegate to the
Democratic convention
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...
that nominated
Stephen A. Douglas for president in 1860."
Five days after Fort Sumter he was given command of the fourth brigade of the first division of the Louisiana state militia.
Camp Pratt, a Confederate
boot camp Boot camp may refer to:
Training programs
* Boot camp (correctional), a type of correctional facility for adolescents, especially in the U.S. penal system
* Boot camp, a training camp for learning various types of skills
** Dev bootcamp, a de ...
at
New Iberia, Louisiana, was named for him.
In 1862, a unit he commanded, composed of irregular militia and Partisan Rangers, recruited from the parishes of St. Charles, Terrebonne and Rapides, botched an attempt to hijack a
New Orleans, Opelousas, and Great Western Railway train. Pratt was arrested by Union soldiers in Louisiana and held as a
prisoner of war for a time in 1863. He was one of three major contributors to an 1865 narrative account published by Confederate Louisiana state governor
Henry Watkins Allen called ''Official report relative to the conduct of federal troops in western Louisiana, during the invasions of 1863 and 1864''.
In 1865 Pratt was a declared candidate for a seat in the U.S. Congress from
Louisiana's 4th Congressional district. He died in
Portland, Connecticut, in 1866 and is buried in
Trinity Church Cemetery in
Middlesex County.
See also
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, John Galbraith
1816 births
1866 deaths
People of Louisiana in the American Civil War
Confederate militia generals
Northern-born Confederates