Aaron Sheehan-Dean

speaker

924 appearances 3 recordings 1 series first heard Feb 2026 last heard 24 Aug

Aaron Sheehan-Dean’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

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American History Hit · Battle of Baton Rouge: Civil War on the Mississippi · 5 Feb 2026 podcast

details John Breckinridge to take several divisions and move south to Baton Rouge to try to clear out the Union from Baton Rouge and then push south and liberate New Orleans.

What he wants to do is relieve what he anticipates will be a Union attack coming from the south at Vicksburg.

He's already contending with Grant coming down from the north.

And so Breckenridge's orders are part of this larger strategic vision of protecting the Confederate position at Vicksburg and furthermore, liberating southern Louisiana from Yankee occupation, which already by July and August of 1862, there are horrible stories about what's happening there.

And so there is a need, I think, to kind of reinforce a sense of protecting the south's largest city.

It is.

Breckenridge leaves with about 4,000 troops.

He comes down to Camp Moore in Tangipahoa, which is just below the Mississippi-Louisiana line on the sort of toe of the boot of Louisiana.

And as you note, he's trying to attack without them being aware.

He is marching in August.

It is a hot and humid and horrible time to be in Louisiana.

I can testify from personal experience.

And he loses a lot of soldiers to attrition so that by the time he reaches Baton Rouge, he's coming from the east.

He's actually only got about 2,600 effectives.

And they have also lost the element of surprise.

There's a pretty noisy, disorganized movement coming from Camp Moore.

towards the river that is towards the West, towards Baton Rouge.

And so by the time they are there, August 4th, the battles on August 5th, the Union knows that the Confederate attack is imminent.

And so they can dig in and entrench themselves, the infantry and the gunboats can get ready.

Well, that is really the kind of one of the key logistical problems for Davis for this whole war.

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