Dear Mr. Thrower
While in the Baton Rouge area you will want to visit the Old State Capitol museum, a grand gothic building with a nice museum inside. Also, try to stop in Natchitoches, La., the oldest settlement in the Louisiana Purchase area, older than New Orleans, which has a very nice replica of a 1740s French colonial fort, with reenactors on hand every day to show you around. Finally, I highly recommend the Mansfield Civil War Battlefield, where Confederate Gen. Richard Taylor checked Nathaniel Banks' Union invasion of the Red River. It's about halfway between Natchitoches and Shreveport, not far off of Interstate 49.