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by Alana A. Carmon De Soto Parish was created in 1843 from territory formerly incorporated in Caddo and Natchitoches parishes. The parish was named in honor og Don Joseph Marcelo DeSoto, who brought the first thirty white families to the area and established the village Ville du Bayou Pierre. The earliest settlers, the French and Spanish, occupied the region late in the eighteenth century. By the 1830s, Americans from Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, the Carolinas, Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee emigrated to the area and began to outnumber the pioneers. Mansfield, the seat of justice in DeSoto Parish, is historically notable as the site of a major Confederate victory during the Civil War. The Confederate triumph in April of 1864 spared Shreveport and Texas from Union invasion. The battle site can be toured at Mansfield State Commemorative Park.
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LINKS OF INTEREST Photo Gallery (Images
of LAGNIAPPE Louisiana Technical College - Mansfield Campus
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PRINCIPAL TOWNS Longstreet South Mansfield FESTIVALS
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HISTORIC SITES Historic Grand Cane Association WILDLIFE Bayou Pierre Wildlife Management Area FISHING
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