Survey of Mississippi Fortifications from Port Hudson to Bayou Sara 1863-02-10

Bayou Sara was a town in

West Feliciana Parish West Feliciana Parish (French: ''Paroisse de Feliciana Ouest''; Spanish: ''Parroquia de Feliciana Occidental'') is a civil parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, the population was 15,310. The parish seat is St. F ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, United States until the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

washed it away in 1927. In the early 1800s it was the most important landing between

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

and

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was ...

. According to the

American Guide The American Guide Series includes books and pamphlets published from 1937 to 1941 under the auspices of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP), a Depression-era program that was part of the larger Works Progress Administration in the United States. T ...

to Louisiana, Bayou Sara was "founded in 1790 by John H. Mills and Christopher Stewart, who established a trading post on the river which grew into one of the most flourishing ports between Natchez and New Orleans. With the advent of the railroad, trade diminished and the town gradually declined, so that now all that remains of Bayou Sara are a few wooden shacks and a tall, uninscribed monument, and these have been absorbed by St. Francisville." John H. Mills had originally settled in the

Natchez District The Natchez District was one of two areas established in the Kingdom of Great Britain's British West Florida, West Florida colony during the 1770sthe other being the Tombigbee District. The first Anglo settlers in the district came primarily fro ...

where he operated a sawmill in partnership with Isaac Johnson near Second Creek. Mills' son Gilbert Mills married Johnson's daughter Ann Waugh Johnson. In 1790 Mills moved south to the vicinity of the Bayou Sarah and in partnership with Christopher Strong Stewart opened a trading post on the batture. Stewart later moved to Mobile, Spanish West Florida, where he died in 1809. John James Aububon came to Bayou Sara in 1821 and began the nature studies that became the '' Birds of America''. A visitor coming down the river in 1822 reported that "Alligators are numerous along shore" in the vicinity of Bayou Sara and St. Francisville. The town had its own newspaper, the ''Bayou Sara Sun'', prior to the American Civil War.

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