Editing Beauregard Parish, Louisiana (section)

===Parish origin===
In 1804, the United States organized present-day Louisiana as the [[Territory of Orleans]]. In 1805 the territory was further divided into 12 counties. Opelousas County included the entire southwestern section of the state, and extending almost to the [[Mississippi River]] in the northeast. By 1807 the counties were reorganized into parishes. [[St. Landry Parish, Louisiana|St. Landry]] was one of the original nineteen [[civil parishes]] established by the [[Louisiana Legislature]]. St. Landry was the largest parish in Louisiana, called the Imperial St. Landry Parish. For a short period after the fall of [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]] during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], [[Opelousas, Louisiana|Opelousas]] was not just the county seat but was the state capitol (until it was permanently moved to [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]]). [[Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana|Calcasieu Parish]] was created March 24, 1840, from the western portion of Saint Landry Parish. Calcasieu Parish has since been divided into five smaller parishes. The original area of Calcasieu Parish was called Imperial Calcasieu Parish.

The bill to create Beauregard Parish out of the northern area of Imperial Calasieu Parish was passed in 1912 and took effect at the beginning of 1913.<ref name=McNeese>{{cite web |url=http://library.mcneese.edu/depts/archive/FTBooks/gremillion-beauregard.htm |title=Beauregard Parish |website=library.mcneese.edu |publisher=McNeese State University |date=2008 |last=Gremillion |first=John Berton |access-date=September 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150130075627/http://library.mcneese.edu/depts/Archive/FTBooks/gremillion-beauregard.htm |archive-date=January 30, 2015 }}</ref>  The Parish was named after [[P.G.T. Beauregard]], a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] general.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.beauregardtourism.com/|title=Beauregard Tourist Commission - Travel information, Historical Landmarks, Travel Planner|website=Beauregard Tourist Commission|language=en|access-date=March 9, 2018}}</ref>