Editing Lake Providence, Louisiana (section)

===Civil War===
By the start of the [[American Civil War]] in 1861, the region consisted mostly of large [[cotton]] [[plantations in the American South|plantations]] along the river, which were worked by thousands of [[slave]] laborers.

The town of Lake Providence developed after the arrival of the [[Union Army]] in the spring of 1862. Under the direction of General [[Ulysses S. Grant]], the area by Lake Providence was established as a supply depot and base of operations for the [[Vicksburg Campaign]]. The soldiers dug a canal between the Mississippi River and Lake Providence. The area was called "Soldiers' Rest". Grant subsequently moved his troops south for  temporary residence at [[Winter Quarters State Historic Site|Winter Quarters]] south of [[Newellton, Louisiana|Newellton]] in [[Tensas Parish, Louisiana|Tensas Parish]]. As slaves crowded into the camp at Lake Providence to gain freedom from surrounding plantations, the population quickly soared from a few hundred to several thousand.  What began as a simple military supply camp quickly transformed into a city with a large population of African-American refugees.

By the time [[Vicksburg, Mississippi]] fell to the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] in 1863, most [[Plantations in the American South#Planter (plantation owner)|planters]] in the Lake Providence area had fled, and their plantations lay empty. The Union Army determined that they should be productive again.