Battle of Jackson

Battle of Jackson. Monday August 3, 1863. , As the remaining gun of the 2nd Vermont rumbled by this point, hotly pursued by Confederate cavalry {1}, the main body of Federal infantry and cavalry {2} made its way, under Confederate pressure, through the woods and ravine and reached Clinton Road (present day LA Highway 10 just beyond the bridge). Here they formed another battle line {3}, but soon broke under Confederate attacks and began to retreat from Jackson toward the east., The frame house with a porch to your immediate front (Brown Cottage, built ca 1818) is believed to be the oldest surviving structure in town. At the time of , the battler, it was the residence of the Irish-born mayor of Jackson, James G. King and his wife Martha E.H. Sims Scott Douglas King. Mrs. King participated in the American Colonization Society's effort to send manumitted slaves to Liberia by contributing seventeen freed slaves for passage., Mayor King's brother, Rev. William R. King, left Jackson in 1848 with fifteen slaves to establish a settlement of freed slaves in Buxton, Canada. He soon became an influential member of the Northern abolitionist movement and was actively associated with what became to be known as the Underground Railroad., , In 1863, Mrs. King's oldest son, Colonel John S. Scott commanded a brigade of cavalry in the Army of Tennessee. This brigade included the 1st Louisiana Cavalry Regiment raised by Scott in 1861. Mrs. King's younger son, William W. Douglas, served as ordnance sergeant in his brother's brigade.