Queen of the West

The Queen of the West plied the waters of the Mississippi, Atchafalaya and Red Rivers during the Civil War, under two different flags and three different venues. At first, she carried civilian passengers and freight in the antebellum years. Then she was retrofitted as a Union war ship. She was a key in the success in action at Memphis, Vicksburg and the Yazoo. Finally, after being captured at Fort DeRussy on the Red River, she floated under the Confederate flag until she was destroyed. Inside is the illustrated story of the ship and some of the brave men, of both armies, who make up her story. There is the story when she was attacked near Simmesport, Louisiana and the Union captain burned three plantations along the Atchafalaya River in revenge. There is the story of when its pilot, suspected of being sympathetic to the South, grounded her right in front of a heavily fortified fort on Red River. And there is the story of the its captain, at the young age of 19, who won the admiration of Admiral Porter and General Sherman themselves. The compiler of this book lives near the site where the Queen of the West went from the Union to the Confederate flag. The author's grandmother's family was at Barbin's Landing on Red River, which her father Eugene Michot at one time managed, and was the pivotal point in the life of the Queen of the West.