REVIEWS

From a website fan, via e-mail, 10 Oct 2009

Thank you for your work. I am from a line of Prejean, Daigle, Lirette, etc. etc.

I thoroughly enjoy going through your site.

Alexis Lirette Hellman
Houma, LA

From the wife of a descendant of an Acadian in Gray, via e-mail, 31 Aug 2007

First of all let me congratulate you on your website—It is indeed informati[ve] and wonderful. A great deal of hard work on your part has gone into this treasure. I applaud your willingness to share your interest and genealogy research. ...

Elaine Boston
Folsom, LA

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From a descendant of an Acadian in Gray, via e-mail, 7 Oct 2006

I compliment you on your excellent website. Thank you for perpetuating the history of our Confederate ancestors.

Regards,
John Fleming,
Metaire, LA

[postscript: Like thousands of residents of the New Orleans area, John lost many of his ancestor records in Hurricane Katrina. Our hearts go out to the victims of that terrible storm.]

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From Paul Griffiths, via e-mail, 15 Sep 2006

Wow... what a fantastic resource your site has been for me this evening!

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From a proud Southerner, via e-mail, 24 Jan 2006

Good Morning, I just had to send you a note about how much I appreciate your research and website. ...

What makes me so proud of your website is the input and effort you have made which shows the diversity and acceptance of the peoples of Louisiana.

Now, if we could just see the Black Confederates come out of the closet I will be satisfied that the true history of the South and the Confederacy is at last fully disclosed and I will leave this world in peace.

Sincerely yours,

Josephine Lindsay Bass

Confederate Southern American

From Keith Doucet, via e-mail, 25 Oct 2005:

I really enjoy your website, and have gotten some great family information from it. ... I have been able to locate several Confederate ancestors through your website. Keep up the great work.

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From Lee Crockett, a Guilbeau cousin of mine, via e-mail, 5 Sep 2005:

First of all, the website "Acadians in Gray" is outstanding. ... it is wonderful to see things like your website where many can benefit from your hard work researching our Cajun ancestors. I take great pride in this heritage.

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From Bob Turcott, Acadian genealogist, via e-mail, 22 Jul 2005:
great website, now I know where to track some of the acadian families I am reserching.

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From Ned Louis Labbe, Jr., a descendant of Acadians in Gray, via e-mail, 27 July 2004:

Thank you for your response. Your web-site is thorough with excellent methodology.

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From Karlos Knott, commander of the Major General Franklin K. Gardner Camp, SCV, Lafayette, LA, via e-mail, 22 July 2004:

Steve,

Thanks for making our July meeting such a hit. I am still getting email and calls praising your talk. Everyone enjoyed meeting you and getting to hear the truth about their Acadian ancestors.

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From a sixth cousin once removed & her husband, via e-mail, 28 February 2004:

We read through your entire website and my husband had tears in his eyes when he finished.

Virginia & Bruno Tokarz

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From a descendant of an Acadian in Gray, via e-mail, 24 January 2004:

Thanks for your help in nailing down some of the details of my ancestor's journey. It's also rekindled my love for the Civil War (or as some in Virginia say "The War of Northern Agression.").

Tom

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From a descendant of two Acadians in Gray, via e-mail, 4 January 2004:

Mr. Cormier,

This is a great site! You've done a wonderful job of putting all of this information together. Thank you for all of your efforts. I've added it to my favorites and will be back!

Regards,

Dawn McQuiston

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From a descendant of an Acadian in Gray, via e-mail, 1 January 2004:

Sir, Love your site! My great ... grandfather was the captain responsible for the 26th LA, CO F (Capt John J. Shaffer). I would like to do some research on the 26th and the battles that they fought. Do you happen to know of the best books and/or the articles written on this unit. If you could help would greatly appreciate it.

Lee Shaffer
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From a fellow compatriot in the SCV, via e-mail, 18 August 2003:

GREAT JOB!!! I just found out about your site, your efforts, and your cousins efforts!!! I'm in awe! "Thanks to yall for everything" just doesn't do yall justice!!! Please keep up the great work!!!

Respectfully,
Greg Durio

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From a descendant of Acadians in Gray, via e-mail, 3 June 2003:

I have just visited your site and must say that without a doubt it is the most informative I have seen in quite some time. I enjoyed locating a few of my ancestors from the Elton area from among your listings. ... Again your website is awesome!

Carl Garbarino

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From my sweet cousin, Starr Simon Blanchette, via e-mail, 26 April 2003, lovers of Cajuns will get a kick out of this one:

A large group of Iraqi soldiers are moving down a road South of Basra, when they hear a voice call out from behind a sand dune, ... "One Louisiana Cajun soldier is better than ten Iraqi."

The Iraqi commander quickly orders 10 of his best men over the dune, where upon a gun-battle breaks out and continues for a few minutes, ... then silence.

The voice once again calls out, ... "One Louisiana Cajun is better than one hundred Iraqi."

Furious, ... the Iraqi commander sends his next best 100 troops over the dune, and instantly a huge gun fight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, ... again silence.

The Cajun voice calls out again, ... "One Louisiana Cajun is better than one thousand Iraqi."

The enraged Iraqi commander musters 1,000 fighters, and sends them to the other side of the dune. Rifle fire, machine guns, grenades, rockets and cannon fire ring out as a terrible battle is fought, .... then silence.

Eventually, ... one badly wounded Iraqi fighter crawls back over the dune, and with his dying words tells his commander, ... "Don't send any more men, ... it's a trap. There's two of them."

GOD BLESS AMERICA

"THE ELITE CAJUN COMMANDOS"
FROM FORT POLK, LA.

From a descendant of an Acadian in Gray, via e-mail, 24 April 2003:

i would like to say thanks . the website is full of great info . i found my great great grandfather listed . had no idea he was in the civil war . his name is basile sonnier he served in co. B 16th infantry . i have pictures of the whole family . when i saw the picture of the gravesite in carencro i almost fell out my chair . keep up the great work . will visit again thank you .

From a Cajun lady via e-mail, 3 March 2003:

I want to thank you for making this web site for us cajuns! I'm doing research on the Trahan's and this site is really giving me hope to find my ancestors that fought for the south. I hope to someday give you more info for your site.
thanks,

The Trahans

From Keith Melancon's website, Cherbebe.com:

Acadians in Gray: This site is a must for researching most southern Louisiana units, as well as for searching for soldiers with Acadian surnames. The site is well documented and the soldiers names are cross-indexed with their units to make searching out a possible ancestor as easy as it can get. Even if you are not Acadian, it is a good site to go see.
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Also from Keith Melancon's website, Cherbebe.com:
For more information on the 26th Louisiana Infantry, or any other Louisiana unit that was comprised of Acadians, please visit www.acadiansingray.com. This site is a wealth of information on Louisiana Confederate units, focusing in on the role played by the Acadians. Much information can be found here, including partial muster rolls, as well as some information on individual soldiers.
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From a Cajun lady, via e-mail, 25 December 2002, and my reply:

I've just found out about your work "Acadians in Gray", and it looks like a great resource. I understand that your material is copyrighted, but I'm not sure what a reasonable use of it would be. For instance, if one were to find war information about one's ancestor in it, does it mean I can tell people about it but not copy it word for word? Also, so many of the soldiers have an initial for their given name. Are the full names given in the official records? This is so frustrating when trying to sort out the Cajun ancestors, especially considering that there were so many duplicate names in the first place.

Again, I commend you for your work on this. Thanks.

Joyce (Bergeron) Firmin.
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Joyce,

Thank you for your kind words about my website. My material is indeed copyrighted. What that means is, you can use it anyway you choose, including copying it word for word, just give me credit when you use it. As you can see, much of my information is gathered from material in the public domain, but when I place it in a specific context, such as a narrative chapter or a list of individual records, it becomes unique enough for me to call it my own. All I ask is that my readers give me credit for putting it all together so that it makes sense to someone, haha.

You're so right about those frustrating initials. Those initials, unfortunately, come from the "official records"--the Compiled Service Records in the National Archives and Booth's 3-volume work on Louisiana Confederate soldiers and units. The reason for this is that record keeping in many Confederate units was not as careful as record keeping today. Also, many units lost a lot of their records at the end of the war when the Confederacy collapsed. The only remedy I have found to overcome those nasty initials is good solid genealogical research. For instance, my own great-grandfather is listed in the official records as J. Cormier. I know this is him--Joachim Cormier--because I learned his first name from genealogical research, and I was lucky enough to find him and his two brothers in the history of their regiment, the 26th Louisiana Infantry, with their first names listed. There's no way I can do this for the hundreds of other Acadians in Gray who are listed in the official records with only initials for given names. That's why I depend so much on my readers to furnish this information to me. Until they do, I'm stuck with those initials, chere.

I hope this helped. Are you descended from any of the Bergerons that I have listed in my website? If so, please share what personal information you have on him/them I would appreciate it much.

Keep in touch!

Steve Cormier
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From a student of mine here in Virginia, via e-mail, 21 October 2002:
Hey cormier, mitch here, your sight was very interesting and I enjoyed it. I have always been fascinated with the Civil War and have visited many of the landmarks in the state. I checked up on what you said about your book being the only one on the subject and I cant find anything to prove you wrong, pretty cool. I take a creative writing class at bird and ive written many made up letters in the point of view of a confederate soldier writing home to his loved ones. The one I am working on now is a made-up journal about his daily entrees in the week leading up to the battle of Gettysburg. I have done some research to try to get in touch with what a young boy about my age serving in the rebel army must have went through in the week leading up to this major battle. It is a work in progress but I am ! confident I can finish it and enter it in a contest by the end of November. But neway back to your sight, I admire how passionate you are about discovering your fellow Cajuns roll in the war. I was surprised in reading the reviews of your site how passionate some of your visitors were in going through your site. My old site never got the reviews you got man. Well thanks for informing me about your site and it was definately a site a would return to.

mitch p

From a true-blue Cajun who lives in east Texas, via e-mail, 17 October 2002:
Steve,

I thought I would stop by your site to check out your progress and was absolutely amazed. This is so interesting. Of course I meant to only browse and run but when I noticed I had been on your site almost 2hrs.

As you are well aware, I am an Acadian with many many of the men you are writing about (including Alexandre Mouton) in my family tree. But you have managed to put things in a new and understandable perspective for me. I have not nearly finished reading and will return regularly to learn more about this portion of my heritage.

Great Job,
Kirby Broussard

From a descendant of a Confederate soldier, via e-mail, 3 September 2002:
Thank you so much. I am really awed at all there is about my ancestry that is a source of pride, but would have been unknown except for the great work that you and others are doing keeping it alive. And I think that PVT Johnson would have been proud that his family has come to know more about his service.
Jack Johnson

From a descendant of an Acadian in Gray, via e-mail, 2 August 2001:

Steve,

This photo gallery of yours is "awesome"! Even though you only have three photos so far (and we hope you get many more), this is the "human touch"! I am happy to have had a "live" photo of our ancestor; however, the grave marker pictures were "strikingly compassionate" and a tribute to them as well as great for your collection.

Keep up the good work!

Sincerely,
Anna and Robt LeJeune

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From a descendant of an Acadian in Gray, via e-mail, 7 July 2001:

Dear Mr. Cormier,

My name is Benny Furgeson. I sent you an E-Mail earlier in the week concerning my Great Grandfather Etienne Lejeune. I was pleased to find it posted so quickly. I was also surprized when I started to read more of your web site.

I too was born at the old Jennings American Legion Hospital. I grew up with my Grandparents on a rice farm south of Roanoke. I have lived each and every one of the experiences you spoke of in your introduction. My Grandparents, Mr. and Mrs William Lejeune, could barely speak English. Although they raised me from birth, I can barely speak French. My Grandmother, Alice was born a Miller by the way.

Like you as a child, I was taught in school that Acadians and Western Louisiana, played a very small part in the War. One day when we were visiting relatives near Church Point My Grandfather brought me to a site near where he grew up, and told me about the great Civil War battle that had taken place there. His Father, Etienne, had fought there and the Yankees were soundly defeated. He told me of finding shallow graves of both Confederate and

Yankees, as well as old swords, muskets and mini balls, when he was growing up. He told me of the short barrelled shotgun and short sabre that his Father carried during the war, and that now they were in the possession of his Sister.

When I went to school the next day I couldn't wait to tell my 4th grade teacher about this great battle. It didn't take her long to bust my balloon. There was no such battles fought in Louisiana, much less the Carencro area, according to her.

It was many years later when I read "Yankee Autumn in Acadiana" by David Edmonds that I found out that my Grandfather was right. The exact spot that he had taken me to as a child, was exactly where Mr. Edmonds described in his book.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. As I said in my first E-Mail, I do have more info. on My Greatgrandfather, such as rank, burial site, as well as info on a few other people. I will send it as soon as I can locate it.

Sincerely,

Benny Furgeson

Bush, LA
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From a descendant of an Acadian in Gray, via e-mail, 17 June 2001:

Steven,

Thank you for the web site. I have been looking for information on my heritage, and I finally found more information than I could have hoped to find. Napoleon Melancon is my gr gr grandfather, and was a member of the 26th LA infantry. The information on this site has been great for me to learn more about my heritage. Lou Curtis pointed me to your site (we are 2nd cousins, once removed), and I am grateful that there is a way to learn about the Acadien heritage. I am currently living in Hampton, as I am stationed at Langley AFB (I live on the site of the Battle of Big Bethel), so we aren't too far apart. Again thanks for your time and work.

Keith Melancon
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From Dave Smith, "Civil War on the Internet," The Civil War News, January 2001, page 9:

    Our next site comes to us from author and history teacher Steve Cormier, who brings us his Acadians in Gray site. Located at http://www.acadiansingray.com, the site is dedicated to the genealogy and history of the Acadian families who served in the Confederacy. The site started as a pure genealogy site, and has progressed into its more current form.
    Steve is the author of a book on James Longstreet's Suffolk campaign, and has set out to make Acadians as scholarly a project as can be.
    "Every unit that contained a significant number of Confederate soldiers with Acadian surnames is listed, and there must be at least 10 soldiers with Acadian surnames in a company-size unit to make the list. As a result there are 112 companies-sized units listed from 28 regiments and 13 battalions, all of whom were from Louisiana with the exception of one Texas cavalry battalion," Steve said.
    Extensive detail regarding the individual service records of the soldiers is included. "Of course the Web site includes an introduction, list of sources, and a page of links to related Web sites," Steve concluded.
    Steve went the route of registering his own domain name, rather than hanging his site off a standard Internet Service Provider's Web address. For Steve this was important, although certainly not a requirement for the beginning Web developer.
    When asked about what he believes makes his site unique, Steve responded: "Acadians in Gray, I like to think, is part of a growing trend in Civil War historiography that celebrates the private soldier's contribution to the war as well as the great commanders and good strategists. The book that I hope will evolve from this Web site will contain social as well as military history."
    ... Steve believes it important to use a good Web building tool--one as powerful as possible. Steve is a strong believer in creating extensive links to the site, and in not worrying as much about looks as you do about content.
    "Establish a high standard of research for your site and always list your sources. If your site is not scholarly, why bother with it?" he says.
    Finally, like many of the regimental sites we've visited with over the last several years, Steve is amazed at the volume of correspondence he receives from individuals of similar interest, or descendants of the soldiers who fought for the South.
    "Soliciting such information is an integral part of my site," Steve says. "I very much appreciate hearing from the descendants of the Acadians in Gray, and I acknowledge each and every contribution." The next time you have your Web browser open, be sure to visit The Acadians in Gray.

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From Joseph Richard's award-winning 18th Regiment Louisiana Infantry website:

Acadians in Gray, CSA

A real pleasure to behold -- a joy to visit -- a gem in the rough -- a web site that is of appeal to many...such are some of the many words that can be descriptive of the civil war world wide web site, Acadians in Gray. The appeal to folks may be of a regional nature...if you are narrow minded in your way of thinking. Not this researcher! We are very pleased to offer our token of appreciation to Steve Cormier, who has diligently worked and continues to do so in bringing together a group of soldiers who fought with such tenacity. A famous general once observed these soldiers and exclaimed, 'They are dirty, foul mouthed, listen to horrible music, eat anything they can get their hands on and want to fight among themselves all the time'. However, after a couple of battles, and upon observing their battlefield tactics, he again remarked to the same staff officers 'Hell, let them keep their awful smelling food, their dirty habits, their horrible music and their blasphemous language -- just promise me that in the next battle, I can have but one company of these fellows in the front ranks of each of my regiments.' Of course, he was talking about the Cajuns...who often spoke of the Civil War, as the "American's War". These ole' boys knew how to fight. So it is a pleasure to award our small token of appreciation, the American Civil War Excellence Award, to the Acadians in Gray and to Steve Cormier. Three cheers and a wave of our kepi for a most delightful job well done, sir.

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From DearMYRTLE's Daily Genealogy Column:

Acadians in Gray

Acadians in Gray is a website devoted to those Acadians who had moved to Louisiana and later served the
Southern cause in the War of the Rebellion. Steven Cormier, the author of this site, has a natural interest in the history
of Acadians who served the Confederacy: his ancestors were in this category.

He has continued his ancestors' tradition of service with a website that gives an extensive overview both of Acadians
in Confederate service, as well as the story of Cormier's personal journey as he discovered this aspect of his heritage.

Acadians in Gray also features alphabetic lists of Acadians who served in the Confederacy, both by surname and
individual name; a list of Confederate units that included significant Acadian components; and a list of Acadian
Confederates who were killed or missing in action, wounded, taken prisoner by the federals, or who deserted or were
reported as Absent Without Leave.

This website is an excellent starting place for anyone seeking both an overview of the service rendered by Acadian
Confe[d]erates and pointers to the sources of information on those men.

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