“When within a few miles of B.R. [Baton Rouge] we met a great many of our fellows—soldiers torn and mangled; Oh! What awful sights which told us we were in the ‘fiery path of Mars’ and that the bloody work had actually begun, and was furiously raging….”

Soldier from the 4th Louisiana Infantry records his experience at the close of the Battle of Baton Rouge. Excerpt from William Y. Dixon Diary, August 5, 1862, in the William Y. Dixon Papers, Mss. 3423.

Dixon’s diary is one of many items, including manuscripts, photographs, contemporary publications, sheet music and children’s books, on display in the exhibition “Old Times Here Are Not Forgotten: Remembering the Civil War,” at Hill Memorial Library from July 30 – November 2012. The exhibition is presented in commemoration of the ongoing Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War and the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Baton Rouge on August 5.