Historical Markers and War Memorials in Gonzales, Louisiana
Donaldsonville is the parish seat for Ascension Parish
Gonzales is in Ascension Parish
Ascension Parish(63) ► ADJACENT TO ASCENSION PARISH Assumption Parish(14) ► East Baton Rouge Parish(446) ► Iberville Parish(32) ► Livingston Parish(27) ► St. James Parish(28) ► St. John the Baptist Parish(17) ►
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As U.S.-led coalition forces began to unleash a ferocious air war on Iraq with Operation Desert Storm, Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein took to state radio, telling his people "the great duel, the mother of all battles has begun...the dawn of victory . . . — — Map (db m115062) HM
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had lofty goals for World War I, including his hope that the war would create a set of conditions that made future wars impossible. Along with his plea that the war should be fought "to make the world safe for . . . — — Map (db m114884) HM WM
A young resident of Donaldsonville named Private Bennett J. Babin wrote the following letters while serving in the trenches in France in 1918. The first was written to G.D. Bentley, the editor of The Donaldsonville Chief, a weekly newspaper serving . . . — — Map (db m115002) HM WM
Long-time Ascension Parish residents Sergeant Major Chad Lynch, Major Cindy Haygood, Sergeant First Class Bonnie Hymel, and First Sergeant Chad Anderson played vital roles in the Iraq War. They were sent in as part of what became known as the "Iraq . . . — — Map (db m114932) HM WM
Cal Ripken, Sr. signed his first baseball contract in 1956. Over the next 36 years, he served as player, coach and manager within the Baltimore Orioles' organization. Every step of the way, Cal Ripken, Sr. led by example - loyalty, hard work, . . . — — Map (db m198960) HM
Louisiana occupied a highly strategic location during the Civil War. Home to both the South's largest city, New Orleans, as well as the largest Confederate training base in the Gulf South at Camp Moore, and positioned to control the mouth of the . . . — — Map (db m114854) HM WM
Union efforts in the western theater of the war centered on seizing control of the many rivers and streams that pierced the Southern heartland. Employing ironclad warships capable of destroying the South's outdated masonry forts, Union forces . . . — — Map (db m114997) HM
Many of the most climactic and large scale battles occurred in the eastern theatre of the war, primarily Virginia. With the capital cities of both North and South in perilous proximity of one another, much of the fighting in the east naturally . . . — — Map (db m114999) HM
During the first year of the Korean War, President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur, the man Truman put in charge, started to have fundamental disagreements about the methods and overall purpose of the war. MacArthur came to believe that . . . — — Map (db m114991) HM WM
In response to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered 540,000 American troops to the sands of Saudi Arabia to protect it from Iraqi encroachment and to convince Iraq to leave Kuwait. Louisiana residents . . . — — Map (db m114933) HM WM
One of America's most important literary figures, Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 - April 27, 1882), wrote these words that turned out to be prophetic. Before the Mexican-American War began, Emerson predicted that "the U.S. will conquer Mexico, . . . — — Map (db m114882) HM
Dedicated to the men and women wounded in all our wars preserving the freedom of the United States of America. Veterans In God We Trust. Rear of Memorial Each Purple Heart shall always be
a part of freedom's history
Hold deep inside a fervent . . . — — Map (db m196847) WM
"AND THE ROCKETS' RED GLARE, THE BOMBS BURSTING IN AIR, GAVE PROOF THROUGH THE NIGHT THAT OUR FLAG WAS STILL THERE."---“Star Spangled Banner" By Francis Scott Key In September 1814, an American lawyer named Francis Scott Key was sent to . . . — — Map (db m114831) HM
Only 69 miles from where you are standing, the most significant battle of the War of 1812 was fought, the Battle of New Orleans. Ironically, it was neither fought in New Orleans, nor was it fought during the official War of 1812. Instead, it was . . . — — Map (db m114830) HM
Background Throughout the antebellum period, the Northern and the Southern United States developed divergent economies as the North industrialized and commercialized while the South's mild climate and extended growing season allowed it to . . . — — Map (db m115035) HM
Dedicated to all the men and women who paid the ulitmate price in service to their country. This nation was
conceived in liberty and built upon these sacrifices
over the centuries. If this country stands for one shining ideal, it is on our . . . — — Map (db m196848) WM
Panel 1 The Korean War (June 25, 1950 - July 27, 1953) erupted in 1950 when the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) invaded the Republic of Korea (South Korea). What started as a civil war quickly turned into a matter of . . . — — Map (db m115122) HM
Three Louisiana men played prominent roles in the Mexican-American War. Though John Slidell was born in New York, he moved to New Orleans in 1819, started a successful law practice, and eventually became an important leader of the Democratic Party . . . — — Map (db m114832) HM
Panel 1 Fifteen years before Americans began fighting each other in the Civil War, they were at war with their neighbors to the south in Mexico. The Mexican-American War began in 1846 and lasted less than two years with the Americans achieving a . . . — — Map (db m114839) HM
Panel 1 At the stroke of midnight on August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops blasted across the border of their tiny oil-rich neighbor to the south in Kuwait in order to occupy and annex the small sheikdom and gain control of its ample oil reserves. . . . — — Map (db m115151) HM
Panel 1 Much like the Korean War before it, the Vietnam War started as a civil war in Asia, but quickly evolved into an international matter because it became yet another manifestation of the Cold War. By 1954, a communist regime controlled . . . — — Map (db m208813) WM
Panel 1Only twenty-nine years after winning its independence from Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the United States found itself at war once again with its former mother country. The War of 1812 began on June 18, 1812 when Congress . . . — — Map (db m114827) HM
Toppling the Taliban (October 2001 - December 2001)Within days of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. government blamed Al Qaeda, a group of Islamic extremists led by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. The Taliban, an Islamic . . . — — Map (db m115816) HM WM
Out of the clear blue morning sky of September 11, 2001, war came to America. Nineteen hijackers seized four passenger planes and flew them as manned missiles directly into symbols of American financial and military power. Two planes struck the . . . — — Map (db m115804) HM WM
Remembering the men and women of Viet Nam America's forgotten Hero You are America's forgotten hero A fate you didn't deserve. To the Battlefield you did go fighting with prideful nerve. In Honor of the men and women of Desert Storm . . . — — Map (db m198940) WM
Deposing a Dictator: Invading Iraq and the Overthrow of Saddam Hussein (March 2003 – May 2003)By the end of 2002, President George W. Bush had become dissatisfied with Saddam Hussein's level of cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors . . . — — Map (db m115805) HM WM
Panel 1 BackgroundWorld War I, also known as the Great War, was a global clash between most of the world's great powers from 1914 to 1918. The participating nations divided themselves into two camps. On one side, Austria-Hungary, Germany, . . . — — Map (db m115036) HM
Background Twenty years after the "the war to end war," World War I, a far more brutal, destructive, and deadlier conflict broke out—World War II. Fought from 1939 to 1945, the Second World War included almost every nation in the . . . — — Map (db m115794) HM WM
The Big Three Agree While the American soldiers were proving their worth in the Mediterranean (see the panel War in the Mediterranean), they still had not made a huge impact in western Europe, mainly because the British Prime Minister . . . — — Map (db m115788) HM WM
By December 11, 1941, the U.S. was officially at war with all three major Axis powers, but most Americans wanted to see the Japanese head of the three-headed monster cut off first because of what happened at Pearl Harbor. American military . . . — — Map (db m115796) HM WM
Post Pearl Harbor American and British military planners decided on a strategy of “Europe First", but that did not mean “Neglect Japan Entirely.” Indeed, fierce fighting took place in the Pacific in the immediate aftermath . . . — — Map (db m115786) HM WM
