Coppens Louisianna Zouaves
Lee A. Wallace, Jr.
FEW CONTINGENTS OF TROOPS that reached Richmond in 1861 attracted as much attention as did a battalion from New Orleans under Lieutenant Colonel George Auguste Gaston Coppens, known variously as the Louisiana Zouaves and the Confederate States Zouave Battalion. While a number of volunteer units in the South in 1861 styled themselves “Zouaves,” few were apparently organized, trained, and uniformed as close to their prototypes in the French service as was Coppens’ battalion. The Louisiana Zouaves were among the few Southern organizations that ever went into the field actually clad in the characteristic dress that so readily distinguished zouaves from other troops.
In early March, 1861, Gaston Coppens, through a personal interview with President Davis at Montgomery, obtained authorization to raise and equip a battalion of zouaves for immediate service with the Provisional Army of the Confederate States at Pensacola, Florida. In event of war, it was agreed that the battalion was to be increased to a full regiment. [1] Before leaving Montgomery, Coppens telegraphed the news to his brother, Marie Alfred, in New Orleans. Preparations were at once taken toward the formation of what was destined to become one of the most colorful units of the Confederate army. Actually, Coppens had contemplated the raising of a zouave battalion earlier in 1861. At the time of Louisiana’s secession he had offered to raise such a corps for the state, but Governor Moore at the time did not feel authorized to accept their services.[2] The battalion of zouaves as authorized by Davis was to be comprised of five companies, and was to consist of not less than 400, or more than 500 men, with the proper proportion of commissioned and noncommissioned officers.[3]
Headquarters, or the “Zouaves rendezvous,” was established at 61 Customhouse Street. Recruiting apparently offered few problems. On the night of March 24, the first companies organized, under Captains Marie Alfred Coppens and Fulgence de Bordenave, went into barracks set up in a tobacco warehouse in the lower part of the city’s Third District. The ranks of the other companies were reported as rapidly filling.[4] A number of appealing features about this battalion existed which undoubtedly did much to stimulate recruiting. Coppens’ battalion was to be organized and uniformed in the regular Gallic style. All commands were to be given in French, which was probably a matter of convenience, since the battalion was predominantly non-English. Captain de Bordenave himself could not speak English.[5] The Daily Picayune, on March 28, reported that “although there are men of all Nations in the ranks, they appear to have learned quite promptly to obey as soon as the word is given, and do not hesitate more than if they were all French.”
The rank and file of the Zouaves presented an array of nationalities, numbers of whom had seen active campaigning abroad. Frenchborn and Creole French predominated. Company officers were virtually all of French extraction. Colonel Coppens, and his brother, Marie Alfred, were natives of France. Jean Baptiste Souillard, first Lieutenant of Captain Coppens’ company, was a former engineer officer in the French army. Captain Paul Francis De Gournay was reputed to have been an officer under Narciso Lopez on the ill-fated filibustering expedition to Cuba in 1851. Captain Fulgence de Bordenave had served with distinction in the French army at Algiers and in the Crimean War.[6] The Richmond Daily Dispatch in June, 1861, noted that many members of the batta1ion had served in the Crimea, and that “twenty or thirty are New Orleans Irishmen, one hundred or thereabouts are Swiss, and quite a number are Germans, but the majority are American Frenchmen.”[7] In addition to these nationalities were Englishmen, Italians, a few Poles, and at least one Dane. This last-named individual had fought against the Prussians and Schleswig-Holsteiners at Idstedt and Friederickstadt. One Italian had seen varied service in South America, and a Polish veteran of Comorn had been a revolutionary guerrilla in 1848.[8] The battalion's quartermaster officer, Captain Thompson Harrison, was a U.S. Army veteran, while Assistant Surgeon Ashton Miles had spent ten years in the U.S. Navy.[9]
On March 19, 1861, Adjutant General Samuel Cooper advised General Braxton Bragg, commanding the Confederate forces at Pensacola, that the services of the Louisiana Zouaves had been accepted by the government, and that 150 men of the battalion would be immediately sent to Pensacola, with the remainder soon to follow. On March 21, Coppens received orders to move his battalion to Pensacola; on the 28th, the first company, under Captain Coppens, left New Orleans.[10] Captain de Bordenave’s company left New Orleans on April 4, parading through the city’s principal streets before its departure. The Commercial Bulletin reported that “Their dress lends to the Corps a Martial and picturesque appearance … The company was accompanied by two vivandieres attired in appropriate uniform.”[11]
Coppens left New Orleans for Pensacola four days later. Before departing he issued special orders placing Captain Nemours Lauve in command of all troops of the battalion remaining in the city. Lauve was instructed to organize another company of ninety-six men by April 16. All musicians enlisting were to be accepted “without the necessity of medical examination.”[12] On April 17, the companies of Captains Howard H. Zacharie and De Gournay left the city, “all uniformed in the free and easy and picturesque dress characteristic of that [zouave] service, and it would hardly bear improvement.” The company organized by Lauve left for Pensacola on April 19, with a large crowd witnessing their departure.[13] The officers and men of the battalion, upon their arrival in the camp near Pensacola, were mustered into the Provisional Army of the Confederate States for a period of twelve months. Battalion headquarters was established in the Marine Barracks at the Warrington Navy Yard.
On April 23, Coppens advised Secretary of War Leroy P. Walker that his battalion, comprised of five companies totaling 500 men, had reported to General Bragg. Coppens enclosed a roster of the battalion’s officers, and added that they expected to receive their commissions “'as soon as practicable,” since without them they were placed on an unequa1 footing with the officers of other commands at Pensacola.[14] Soon after Coppens’ letter to Walker, another company was added to the battalion – probably with the intention of replacing Captain De Gournay’s unit, which had been mustered with the anticipation of artillery service.
By the end of May the field and staff of the Zouaves consisted of Lieutenant Co1onel George Auguste Gaston Coppens; Major Waldemar Hylested; Captain Thompson Harrison, quartermaster; 1st Lieutenant Frank Zacharie, adjutant; 1st Lieutenant Charles Mansoni, commissary; Captain Ashton Miles, assistant surgeon; 2nd Lieutenant Edouard Pfoendler, colorbearer; and Sergeant Charles Jean Baptiste, sergeant major. Additional personnel included a hospital steward, drum major, quartermaster sergeant, armorer, and ordnance sergeant. Company commanders were: Co. A, Captain Leopold Lange; Co. B, Captain Fulgence de Bordenave; Co. C, Captain Howard H. Zacharie; Co. D, Captain Nemours Lauve; Co. E, Captain Paul F. De Gournay; and Co. F, Captain Marie Alfred Coppens.
William Howard Russell, of the London Times, who visited Bragg’s army at Pensacola, observed that “the only troops near us which were attired with a military exactness were the regiment of Zouaves from New Orleans.” He noted that while Coppens’ Zouaves “looked exceedingly like the real article” as seen in European armies, their physical characteristics differed. “They are, perhaps, a trifle leaner and taller, and are not so well developed at the back of the head, the heels and the ankles as their prototypes.”[15] Thomas C. DeLeon described the Zouaves as a “splendid set of animals; medium sized, sunburnt; muscular and wiry as Arabs; and a long swingy gait told of drill and endurance. But the faces were dull and brutish, generally; and some of them would vie, for cunning villany; with the features of the prettiest Turcos that A1geria could produce.”[16] The Richmond Daily Dispatch added: “They are generally small, but wiry, muscular, active as cats, and brown as a side of sole leather.”[17]
The dress of the Zouaves invariably attracted attention wherever the troops went. The New Orleans Bee, on March 28, 1861, announced that the uniform adopted by the battalion was similar to that of the French zouaves, except that the kepi was worn instead of the traditional fez. Sufficient evidence exists, however, to show that a red fez with blue tassel was soon substituted. Russell noted that the Zouaves wore the fez without the turban. Fabricated of coarse material, the uniform consisted of a dark blue loose-fitting jacket trimmed and embroidered with gold cord, underneath which was worn a close fitting dark blue vest with yellow trim. Red baggy zouave pantaloons ran to the knee followed by black leather leggings over which were worn white gaiters that permitted a few inches of legging to show. Around the waist was a blue cummerbund. Officers wore a dark blue frock coat with very full skirts. Their headgear was the kepi with a band of sky blue cloth and gold cord quarterings. Rank was indicated by the gold lace, or cord, on the cap and coat sleeves.
It was first intended to arm the Zouaves with “Minie Rifles” equipped with sword bayonets. The Bee on March 28, 1861, stated that five thousand of these weapons were “daily expected from the best Belgian Armories.” Russell erroneously reported the Zouaves as being armed with the rifled musket and sword bayonet.[18] On April 23, 1861, Gaston Coppens wrote Secretary Walker: “We are at present using U.S. Government muskets, but if possible it is essential that we should be furnished with the Minie Rifle & Sword Bayonet, as well as accoutrements which were promised to us on our arrival here, and which have not yet been furnished us.” Three months later a New York Herold correspondent reported that some captured Zouaves were armed with the “old style” musket. As was the fashion in 186I, the bowie knife was commonly seen throughout the ranks of the batta1ion.[19]
Reveille at Warrington sounded early for the Zouaves, with the “clang of trumpets and the rolls of the drums beating French calls.”[20] Their officers and noncoms shouting commands in French, the Zouaves during their sojourn in Florida attained a high degree of perfection in drill. Aside from formations and parades, other camp and field duties – such as erecting fortifications on the shore of Pensacola Bay, harbor police patrols, and the endless tours of guard duty – kept the men of the battalion busy. If all dined as the officers, food and beverages offered little cause for complaint. Russell noted that the battalion’s officers were “seated at a very comfortable dinner, with an abundance of champagne, c1aret, beer and ice.”[21] However pleasant life may have seemed to some at Warrington, it soon grew monotonous and irksome to the volunteers who had enlisted to fight a war.
Many a Zouave breathed a sigh of joy when orders came for the battalion to leave for Virginia. On June 1, the battalion boarded a special train for Montgomery, the first lap of the journey. The battalion officers occupied the rear car while the men “filled the forward ones, making the woods ring with their wild yells, and the roaring chorus of the song of the Zou-Zou." Although the troops were jubilant enough over leaving Pensacola, a prevailing dissatisfaction existed because they had not been paid since their muster into service. Yet, citizens along the way freely handed whiskey over to the Zouaves. Discipline melted with each gulp. The train stopped at Garland, and the officers left in a body and walk up to a house some distance away for breakfast. Two musicians were left on the platform as guards. As this was a special train, little concern was given to any scheduled departure. The officers therefore took their time.
Just as they sat down to breakfast, they heard the scream of the engine’s whistle, followed by the rumbling of railroad cars. The astonished commanders rushed to windows just in time to see the train disappear around a curve, their own empty and uncoupled car standing quietly on the rails. The “spirited” Zouaves had stolen their own train! In no uncertain terms were the two guards informed of their negligence by the officers. Telegrams were sent to both ends of the line while the officers waited for another engine.
Meanwhile, when the Zouaves reached Montgomery, they lost little time in searching out establishments conducive to their mood. Thoroughly liquored up, they next began plundering stores for more whiskey, threatened citizens, and even entered several private residences. The 1st Georgia Regiment was called out to quell the rioters with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets. Into this perilous situation then came the train bearing the irate Zouave officers. Before their train could stop, the officers – revolvers in hand – leaped off and charged into the area where their men were congregating. Shouting oaths in French and effectively using their pistols as clubs, the officers quickly succeeded in restoring order. Within a half-hour the battalion was mustered in formation on Main Street with only nine absentees – although, as later described, “many a fez was drawn far down over a bleeding forehead, and many a villainous countenance was lighted by one eye, while the other was closed and swollen.”[22]
The journey by rail from Montgomery to Richmond took the Zouaves through Opelika, West Point, Augusta, Columbia, Wilmington, and Petersburg. The trip apparently was just one long hangover from the Montgomery spree. At Opelika, a member of Captain Coppens' company received a wound from an unexplained source, from which he later died. Another from the same company was killed in a fall from the train before reaching Atlanta. When the battalion changed trains at Augusta, a member of Company C, who had left the ranks with the intent of buying tobacco at a nearby store, was reported shot and killed without warning by one of his company officers. Further outbursts of misconduct occurred when the battalion reached Co1umbia. En route to Wilmington, one man sitting on top of a car was killed instantly when the train passed under a low bridge. After leaving Weldon, a number of Zouaves balanced themselves on the connecting beams of the box cars despite warnings of the danger from both officers and conductors. The inevitable followed. The train gave a jolt, which sent the two cars together, mashing three to death. It was scarcely a dull journey, to say the least.[23]
On June 7, the battalion arrived at Richmond and went into temporary quarters at Glazbrook’s warehouse near the Petersburg Depot. In contrast to other units coming in from the lower South, the Zouaves held no public parade after their arrival in Richmond. Indeed, the Louisianans seemed to bewilder Richmond. The Daily Dispatch reported that the city “was yesterday thrown into a paroxysm of excitement by the arrival of the New Orleans Zouaves – a battalion of six hundred and thirty, as unique and picturesque looking Frenchmen as ever delighted the oculars of Napoleon the three.” The Dispatch also noted that the Zouaves were “painfully dirty” after eight days of travel, during which “their principal fare, since leaving Pensacola, has been crackers, cheese, and whiskey, and they are in sad want of more substantial ailment.”[24]
On June 10, the battalion was ordered to Yorktown, the headquarters of Colonel John B. Magruder, who was in command of operations on the lower Peninsula. Disembarking from a steamer at Williamsburg, the Zouaves then marched overland for eleven miles and reached Yorktown on the evening of June 12. A few days later, the battalion proceeded to Big Bethel Church and took up a position with the 2nd Louisiana, two companies from Warwick and York counties, two batteries of artillery, and a small cavalry troop.
On the morning of June 19, vedettes reported enemy troops advancing in force. Orders were issued for the battalion to fall back to Yorktown. During the process of withdrawing (apparently done in much greater haste than was necessary), the men were advised to throw away their blanket rolls. Knapsacks had never been issued, and the little extra clothing the men had was carried wrapped up in their rolls. Through some misunderstanding, an officer in charge of evacuation details burned Captain Lauve’s tent and a good portion of his clothing – as well as those of the company officers. Lauve later reported that some of his sick had lost their equipments and arms, and that the men “are in the greatest need of clothing.” At the end of the month, Captain Fabre noted that the c1othing of his company was “entirely used up and if not renewed the camp will be naked in less than one week.” At the same time, clothing was “greatly wanted” in Captain de Bordenave's company, where the uniforms were “used up and have not been replaced.”[25] Other companies made similar reports.
The despairing clothing situation became steadily worse, and the summer of 1861 probably saw the last of the picturesque uniforms worn by the battalion when it left New Orleans. When the clothing of the battalion was replaced is unknown, but it was certainly no earlier than September of that year. One might wonder too, about the predicament of Fabre’s company after the “week” had expired. Despite the critical state of the clothing, muster rolls show that the arms and accoutrements of the battalion were generally reported as being in “good order” throughout 1861.
In June, 1861, occurred an outburst of dissatisfaction among the officers and men of the battalion with their commander. How 1ong this troub1e had been brewing is unknown. Although no friction was apparent between Coppens and his officers, it is clear that they were not pleased with the way in which be did, or did not, run the battalion. About June 18, the company commanders appeared in a body before Magruder and stated that if some changes were not made, they would resign and serve as privates. Although Coppens was “a brave and good man,” they stated, he was “entirely without energy or the faculty to command.” As a solution to the problem, Magruder proposed to expand the battalion into a regiment; two companies, from Warwick and York counties, Virginia, were accordingly attached to the battalion. Magruder requested of Adjutant General Cooper that Lieutenant Colonel William D. Stuart of the 15th Virginia be appointed to command the regiment. This plan, Magruder informed Cooper, “would not be distasteful to Lieutenant-Colonel Coppens himself, who will still be lieutenant-colonel.”
General Robert E. Lee, commanding Virginia forces at this time, wrote Magruder that the whole affair had been a source of “great regret to me.” He advised that there were “insurmountable obstacles in the way of the promotion of Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart … to the command of the regiment you propose …” Lee directed Magruder to send Coppens to Richmond for a personal conference. When Coppens left for Richmond on June 26, he carried with him a letter from Magruder to Lee, which in part read: “Lieutenant-Colonel Coppens appears devoted to his duties, and, from my own observations, though I have seen but little of him, I am of the opinion that he will make a very good officer.”[26] Although the details of the meeting with Lee remain obscure, Coppens continued to command the battalion.
The disturbances which had occurred within his command in June must have been especially troublesome to the young officer, who stood a good chance of having his battalion increased to a regiment with himself as colonel. During the interview at Montgomery in March, 1861, Davis had expressed the wish that if war came, Coppens should be authorized to raise a regiment. Coppens wrote the President on April 23 that “I am anxious to know if His Excellency wishes me to proceed and carry out this undertaking, and if so to advise me, as I have been offered organized companies, which I shall accept as soon as I receive your concurrence.” Davis’ reply does not exist; yet on May 4 Congress passed an act “providing for a regiment of zouaves in the Army of the Confederate States.” Soon afterwards, the Louisiana unit was recognized as the zouave regiment provided for by Congress.[27] In July, four companies of zouaves raised in New Orleans were ordered by the Secretary of War to join Coppens’ command. On July 15 Coppens received word from the four company commanders that their units would be ready by the nineteenth, but “we must have an order from Secretary of war to muster by company before leaving.” On July 23 Coppens sent a copy of the telegram in a letter to Walker, and stated: “I have reasons to believe that you will give a satisfactory answer both to those gentlemen and to myself.” Perhaps fearful that the outbreak of disorderly conduct among the Zouaves in June might effect Walker’s decision to augment his command with new companies, Coppens added that
Since the insubordinate and disorderly ones – about 20 in number – have been confined and are Court Martialed, the Battalion has redeemed the reputation it had at Warrington for subordination and discipline and has received the felicitations of the commanding officer at York Town for the performance of its duties & I am convinced that they will continue to deserve the same credit for their conduct hereafter.[28]For some undetermined reason, the four companies raised in New Orleans were not forwarded to Coppens. In early August, Captain Leopold Lange was sent to New Orleans to raise additional companies – “two or perhaps four full companies to make a complete regiment of Colonel Coppens famous battalion,” reported the Bee.[29] By the end of the month Captain Lange had met with considerable success in obtaining recruits for about four companies. “Instead of the four hundred which he came here for with but slight chances of getting,” the Bee stated, “he will soon return to Virginia with five hundred and could have more than that if he wanted them.”[30] What then happened is not clear, but the companies were not added to Coppens’ battalion.
In the meantime, the Zouaves spent the latter part of July and early part of August in demonstrations against the Federals on the lower Peninsu1a, and on August 7 they participated in the burning of Hampton. Short1y thereafter, Captain De Gournay’s Company E was detached from the battalion to serve in the heavy artillery batteries at Yorktown. The company, which had originally enrolled as artillery, never returned to the battalion.[31]
On October 3, 1861, the infantry forces serving on the Peninsula were grouped into brigades. Coppens’ battalion was assigned to Colonel Theodore G. Hunt’s Second Brigade, which included the 5th Louisiana Regiment and the 1st Louisiana Battalion.
Late in January, 1862. Coppens received authorization from Secretary of War Benjamin to muster, or “cause to be mustered into service,” an unspecified number of companies of light infantry for three years’ service. These units were then to be organized by the President into a regiment or battalion. Coppens, Captain de Bordenave, and the battalion adjutant, Lieutenant Randolph Ducros, arrived in New Orleans a few weeks later. It appears that the companies to be formed were not necessarily to be attached to Coppens’ command in Virginia. An announcement in the New Orleans Daily Picayune on February 20 stated that these units wou1d have an opportunity of going into active service in Kentucky or Missouri. Two companies were raised in March and formed into a batta1ion under Major St. Laurent Dupiere. They were mustered into service in April as a battalion of the regiment of zouaves authorized for the army. Dupiere’s battalion was not sent to Kentucky, Missouri or Virginia, but served instead in Louisiana and Mississippi.[32]
In January, 1862, when the Zouaves (then comprised of five companies) were stationed at Fort Magruder near Williamsburg, the battalion numbered twenty-three officers and 420 enlisted men.[33] Of this number only eleven officers and 158 enlisted men were present for duty.
Three of the officers present were sick and one was under arrest. Thirty-five of the men present were sick, and five were under arrest. This left seven officers and 118 enlisted men actually on duty. Of the 275 absent, nine officers were absent on leave, and three were on detached service. Forty-three of the absent enlisted men were sick, 173 absent with 1eave, and forty-six were on detached service. None was reported as being absent without leave. March, 1862, found the battalion no better in effective strength; only three officers and 118 enlisted men were present. Of those absent, 193 were on leave, seventy-eight were on detached service, and twenty-seven were sick.[34]
Little improvement in the effective strength of Coppens’ battalion showed in May, 1862, when the Confederates began falling back toward Richmond in the face of McClellan’s advance up the Peninsula. The Zouaves fought at Williamsburg, then went into battle at Seven Pines with 225 rank and file. They lost over half this number, including twelve commissioned officers killed or wounded. At Williamsburg and Seven Pines the Zouaves served in Richard H. Anderson’s brigade of James Longstreet’s division. After Seven Pines the battalion was presented with a batt1eflag decorated with the names of Williamsburg and Seven Pines “as a token of the high appreciation in which he [Longstreet] held the conduct of the officers and men of the command.”[35]
In June, 1862, prior to the opening of the Seven Days battles, Coppens’ battalion was attached to Brigadier General Roger A. Pryor’s brigade, which also included the 3rd Virginia, 2nd Florida, 14th Louisiana, and the Donaldsonville (Louisiana) Artillery. Years later, Mrs. Pryor recalled the period just preceding the Seven Days, when the army was on the outskirts of Richmond. Coppens was evidently among those who frequently visited the city at this time, for Mrs. Pryor wrote:
From my windows I witnessed the constant arrival of officers from every division of the army. The Louisiana Zouaves were an interesting company of men. Their handsome young French Colonel Coppens was a fine example of grace and manly beauty. He would dash up to the door on his handsome horse, dismount, and run up the stairs for a word with some official, run down again, vault lightly into his saddle, and gallop down the street. No one was more admired than Colonel Coppens.[36]After Seven Pines, Coppens’ battalion numbered about 188 men. During the Seven Days battles the battalion lost an additional five killed and forty-two wounded, fewer than the number suffered by any of the brigade’s other units. A considerable portion of the brigade’s 850 casualties for the Seven Days was sustained at Mechanicsville on June 26, where Pryor reported Coppens’ battalion and the 3rd Virginia as having been “especially distinguished.”[37]
After the Seven Days the Zouaves were assigned to Colonel Leroy A. Stafford’s brigade, comprised of the 1st, 2nd, 9th, 10th, and 15th Louisiana Regiments, plus the 3rd Louisiana Battalion. Stafford’s brigade was part of General A. P. Hill’s “Light Division,” which Lee soon placed under General T. J. Jackson. The Louisianans reached Jackson’s army near Gordonsville on about August 12.
Yet by the time Coppens left to join Jackson, his battalion had been reduced to a mere skeleton of its former self: twenty-seven privates and four officers. The unit was in dire need of clothing; fourteen of the battalion’s number left Richmond without shoes. After crossing the Rappahannock on August 25, these barefoot troops straggled, and presumably were captured. Approximately seventeen remained to serve with Stafford’s (later Starke’s) brigade through Second Manassas, Chantilly, Harper’s Ferry, and Sharpsburg.
A few days before the battle of Sharpsburg, according to one source, Colonel Coppens was appointed to command the 8th Florida Infantry. His brother, Alfred Coppens, apparently assumed command of the Louisiana Zouaves at this time. When Gaston Coppens left, he took with him the staff wagon containing the battalion’s papers. These records, as far as can be learned, were lost and never recovered. Colonel Coppens died at Sharpsburg and was cited in Longstreet’s dispatch as among those “valuable and gallant officers [who] fell in the unflinching performance of their duty, bravely and successfully heading their commands in the thickest of the fight.”[38] Of the remaining few Zouaves who fought at Sharpsburg, two were badly wounded and two were captured.
After Sharpsburg the clothing of the Zouaves steadily worsened. Requisitions for shoes, blankets, and uniforms were frequently made, yet Colonel Edmund Pendleton, who commanded Starke's brigade, refused them on the grounds that he could not recognize the Zouaves as an independent command (presumably because of the battalion’s depleted strength). On the march back to Virginia the remaining members of the battalion were reported as barefoot, ragged, and without blankets. They followed the columns as best they could, but eventually straggled so badly as to leave the battalion virtually nonexistent.[39]
On November 10, 1862, the C.S. Zouave Battalion was reorganized “for the war.” Not until after the battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862, however, did the actual process of reorganization get under way. The remnants of the battalion were sent to Richmond and placed in Battery 15 of the city’s defenses, where they were to build up their strength. On January 8, 1863, General Raleigh E. Colston, commanding at Petersburg, recommended that Coppens’ battalion be sent to reinforce General Roger Pryor on the Blackwater River in southeastern Virginia. Colston advised that General Pryor was “very anxious to have them, and is confident that if they are ordered to him he can double their numbers by recruits drawn from within the enemy’s lines.” Pryor was undoubtedly recalling the fighting abilities of the Zouaves when they were serving as part of his brigade in the Peninsular campaign. Yet, had he been able to see the batta1ion’s morning report of January 3, 1863, Pryor would not have been so interested in getting them. The report showed no enlisted men, only Lieutenant Charles Arroyo, as present for duty. Of the enlisted men, sixteen were missing, two were sick, and nine absent without leave. One officer was under arrest, another on detached service.[40]
On February 2, 1863, the battalion, with an aggregate strength of less than sixty men, was pulled from the Richmond defenses and sent to Pryor on the Blackwater. There they guarded outposts, performed scouting duties, and rounded up deserters and conscripts. This service was interrupted on April 13, when the battalion left to join General Longstreet, whose forces were besieging Suffolk. No details of the Zouaves’ part in Longstreet’s operation exist, other than mention of their participation in several skirmishes. In October, 1863, the Zouaves comprised part of a force operating in the vicinity of Hertford and South Mills, North Carolina, where they collected conscripts and stood ready to repulse any Federal troops venturing out from Norfolk.
Early in November, Coppens’ battalion was posted in the vicinity of Murfree’s Depot (now Murfreesboro), North Carolina. There the Zouaves were provided with what must have been regarded as an all-too-brief diversion from the arduous duties of soldiering in that swampy region. Local ladies were extended elaborately-printed invitations to attend a Soirée Louisianaise, held at the Barnes’s Farm on the evening of November 5. The absorbing admiration the ladies of this remote area must have shown their French-speaking soldier-hosts is not too difficult to imagine.[41]
By December, l863, when the Zouaves were stationed at Franklin Depot, Virginia, the battalion comprised nineteen officers and forty-three men present for duty. Extant records show that while the strength of the unit never again exceeded that number, the batta1ion continued to retain its distinct identity until the war’s end.
Lieutenant Arroyo briefly summarized the battalion’s unspectacular activities for the greater part of the following year:
… January 29, 1864 near Windsor [North Carolina] attacked and drove the Yankees who had surrounded Col. J. R. Griffin with a portion of his command, opening the way for him to make a junction with his command. March 1864 Marched against Suffolk with Genl. Ransom and had several skirmishes with the enemy. May 9th, 1864 Ordered to Hicksford, Va. Aug. 2d Portion of Battalion under Capt. Demourelle went on a scout with Genl. Pryor in rear of Yankee army near Fort Powhatan, had a fight with negroes, routed them and killed & wounded several.[42]The battalion had been sent to Hicksford (now Emporia), Virginia, in May, 1864, as part of a force to protect the vital Petersburg and Weldon Railroad. On June 1, forty-two enlisted men and twelve officers of the Zouaves were reported guarding the covered bridge, about 310 feet long, over the Meherrin River. Other troops stationed at Hicksford were a detachment of Captain Bradford’s Mississippi battery, Company H of the 62nd Georgia Cavalry, and some Virginia Reserves. All were commanded by Coppens. On November 17, 1864, this officer retired from service because of wounds presumably received during the summer of that year.[43] Major Fulgence de Bordenave thereupon became the third and last commander of the Louisiana Zouaves.
On December 9, Union forces under General Gouverneur L. Warren struck the Weldon railroad at the Nottoway bridge, north of Hicksford. Tearing up and bending the rails as they went, the Federals proceeded as far south as Belfield Depot on the north side of the Meherrin River, across from Hicksford. Here they met heavy resistance, including artillery fire, from the Zouaves and other Confederates on the south bank. Warren, seeing that the bridge could not be destroyed without gaining possession of the opposite bank, withdrew and returned to the lines at Petersburg. In this action, known as the “Hicksford Raid,” the Zouaves lost one sergeant killed, four privates wounded, and a captain and the battalion adjutant severely wounded.
The fighting at Hicksford was the unit’s last engagement of the war. It presumably remained in position at Hicksford until the evacuation of Petersburg on April 2, 1865. Whether any of that handful of once-proud Louisiana Zouaves ever reached Appomattox is not known.[44]