The 17th LA was pretty badly decimated at Champion Hill and Vicksburg. When the Louisiana soldiers who were at Vicksburg and Port Hudson were exchanged, on July 21, 1864, those living west of the Mississippi River reformed their regiments, including the 17th LA, and became part of the Louisiana Brigade first under Henry Watkins Allen and then under Allen Thomas. This brigade was at Pineville and Alexandria participated in the construction of Forts Randolph and Buhlow. In February of 1865 they moved to a camp at Cotile Bayou and remained there until sometime in March then back to Alexandria and finally disbanding in Mansfield. The camp at Cotile Bayou is very near Hot Wells so the family story seem to be true.

The LA Brigade moved all over the area from Alexandria to Shreveport in the last year of the war. I have a rememberence of on of the men of the 17th who writes “Early in March, 1865, came another detail calling for volunteers. I again volunteered to go with a company out on Clear Creek Bayou, to take down a saw mill and bring it to Alexandria, to be shipped to Shreveport. In taking the mill down, we found that all joints of the pipe were put together with the best of lead. We boys took it all out and sold it to a bunch of “Jayhawkers” for home-made tobacco to chew and smoke."

I cover what happens to the Vicksburg solider after the fall of the city in much greater detail in my book "The Defense of Vicksburg: A Louisiana Chronicle" which is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and the publisher Texas A&M Press.