Last Days of Last Island: The Hurricane of 1856, Louisiana's First Great Storm

The 1856 summer season was like so many that had come before — uneventful, idyllic. The South’s newest and most popular watering spot was a microcosm of Louisiana’s antebellum economic and social structure. More than four hundred vacationers — wealthy sugar planters, powerful politicians, their families, friends and servants — had come to the island to escape the hot August sun. The waters of the Gulf were cool, its breezes fresh. Life was good.

On the horizon, however, a massive cloud formation was about to tell a much different story. On that fateful day, August 10th 1856, a devastating Category Four hurricane destroyed Last Island. The chaos and confusion that initially reigned gave way in time to a generation of Civil War and Reconstruction. After more than one hundred and fifty years — and the devastation of Katrina — the story remains layered with myths. Last Days of Last Island removes that shroud and presents the first comprehensive account of the hurricane of 1856, “Louisiana’s first great storm.”

• Author
• Bill Dixon

• Format
• paperback

• Pages
• 290

• Publisher
• University of Louisiana

• Language
• english

• ISBN
• 9781887366885

• Genres
• history

• Release date
• 2009