True, there are few remnants of this once-quaint village, as the five-laning of Highway 167 from Ruston to the Arkansas line destroyed what was left of Vienna. At one time, Vienna was a thriving business center for that entire region. It is one of the oldest settlements in north Louisiana, with the earliest white settlers, Daniel Colvin and James Huey, arriving from South Carolina in April 1812. The Colvins opened the earliest post office in the region on 24 March 1838, with the name changing to Vienna in 1850. Vienna has belonged to Ouachita, Union, Jackson, and Lincoln Parishes. Beginning in the 1840s, it served as the center of commerce for the entire region, with a courthouse there until the railroad passed through the area in the 1880s, which caused the businesses to move south a few miles to the railroad stop at Russ's station (now Ruston).

Since my grandparents moved to Vienna in the early 1980s, I have spent a great deal of time in that community. According to what I have been told and from my knowledge of the area, the Confederate headquarters at Vienna was located on the north side of Lincoln Parish Highway 3072 about 3/4 of a mile east of Vienna along the creek (I am drawing a blank as to the creek's name - I'll have to dig out my map and look it up). A close friend, the late Mrs. Arelia Breed, moved to north Louisiana in the 1950s and lived in both Union and Lincoln Parishes. Through her fascination with Union/Lincoln Parish history and its pioneer families, she became acquainted with many older residents. She first told me about the Confederate camp at Vienna and its location. She also told me the names of several older residents who told her about the camp's location, but I failed to record their names prior to her death. That location along the creek is a large, flat plain of about 10-15 acres. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, it looked much larger than it appears today, as trees have since grown up in and around the large pasture. It is really about the only spot around Vienna that is large enough to have served as a military camp. The surrounding terrain is very hilly with many gullies, but that flat spot is ideally suited to pitch a large number of tents. It is also secluded, yet close to Vienna.

Besides the 28th Louisiana Infantry, several other military units trained at Vienna. Moreover, after the Yankees gained control of the Mississippi and mouth of the Black and Ouachita Rivers in mid-1863, the Trans-Mississippi's Department of Northeast Louisiana moved its headquarters from Monroe to Vienna. They were headquartered at Vienna by August 1863, when orders were issued for the formation of the 2nd Battalion Louisiana Heavy Artillery from there. Companies A, B, C, and D formed there at Vienna between August 1863 and January 1864, when the battalion moved to Fort Beauregard at Harrisonburg. Moreover, the parole camps for the many of the soldiers paroled at Vicksburg were established at Vienna. In late 1863, they established a courier line from Shreveport to Monroe headquartered at Vienna and run by the Trans-Mississippi Cavalry Battalion.

Tim