A group of more than 150 "Anti-Vigilance" outlaws had gathered and fortified a house on Bayou Tortue in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. The Vigilance Committee of Lafayette, with help from surrounding parishes, assembled a force of around five hundred mounted men, equipped with a brass cannon, and put them to flight. This ended the virtual civil war between "forces of order" and the criminal and unruly element that has plagued the area all year. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
H.L. Griffin, "The Vigilance Committees of the Attakapus Country; Or Early Louisiana Justice," Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, 8 (1915), 158-159.
"A Bloody Affair in Louisiana," New York Times, September 16, 1859, p. 5.
"A Bloody Affair in Louisiana," New York Times, September 16, 1859, p. 5.