Donaldsonville, Louisiana Donaldsonville, Louisiana The Ascension Parish Courthouse is positioned on Railroad Avenue in Donaldsonville State Louisiana Location of Donaldsonville in Louisiana Location of Louisiana in the United States Donaldsonville (historically French: Lafourche-des-Chitimachas) is a small town/city in and the church seat of Ascension Parish in south Louisiana, United States, positioned along the River Road of the west bank of the Mississippi River.

Donaldsonville is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Its Historic District has what has been described as the finest compilation of buildings from the antebellum era to 1933, of any of the Louisiana river suburbs above New Orleans. Union forces attacked the city, occupying it and a several of the river churches beginning in 1862.

Fort Butler was assembled on the west bank of the Mississippi River.

After the war, in 1868 Donaldsonville inhabitants propel as mayor Pierre Caliste Landry, an attorney and Methodist minister; he was the first African American to be propel as mayor in the United States. This region was encompassed in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and became part of the United States. Americans began to move into the area.

The Louisiana State Capitol in Donaldsonville (1830) Donaldsonville was designated as the Louisiana capital (1829 1831), as the result of conflict between the increasing number of Anglo-Americans, who deemed New Orleans "too noisy" and wanted to move the capital closer to their centers of populace farther north in the state, and French Creoles, who wanted to keep the capital in a historically-French area.

In the summer of 1862, Donaldsonville was bombarded by Union forces amid the American Civil War as part of the Union's accomplishment to gain control of the Mississippi River.

The Union sent gunboats to the town and warned that if shots were fired, the Union Navy would strike the region for six miles to the south and nine miles to the north and destroy every building on every plantation.

Farragut finished much of the former capital town/city and put Ascension Parish under martial law, extending that to other River churches.

Winters, in his The Civil War in Louisiana (1963), describes the scene: Union forces established a base at Donaldsonville for their occupation of river churches.

They stayed and worked with Union forces, helping build the star-shaped Fort Butler in the town.

The fort was assembled to accommodate 600 men, but in 1863 there were a small garrison of 180 Union men, commanded by Major Joseph Bullen of the 28th Maine; the forces were also made up of the 1st Louisiana Volunteers, a several Louisiana Native Guard convalescents, and some fugitive slaves. After the war, Donaldsonville became the third-largest black improve in the state, as more freedmen moved there to join those who had settled near Union forces for safety amid the war.

In 1868 the town/city propel the first black mayor in the United States, Pierre Caliste Landry, a former slave who been educated in schools on a plantation owned by the Bringier family.

Donaldsonville is the home of one of the earliest Jewish house of worship buildings still standing in the United States. The wooden structure was assembled in 1872 by Congregation Bikur Cholim, which disbanded in the 1940s.

An audience watches a magician perform at the Louisiana State Fair in Donaldsonville (1938) Marchand, who was also an attorney, was propel as mayor of the town/city and state legislator amid that period.

Today the Donaldsonville Historic District has what is described as the "finest compilation of buildings from the pre-Civil War to 1933 period" of river suburbs above New Orleans. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In the 21st century, Donaldsonville is a small town/city with various historic sites.

Since 2008, the River Road African American Museum, positioned in the city, has been encompassed on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail. It also has parks, Civil War grounds, and shopping centers.

The official journal of the town/city is the Donaldsonville Chief, which has been presented since 1871. A Louisiana business purchased Pelican II and placed it in the port of New Orleans, until 2002.

The town/city of Donaldsonville acquired the ship from the foundation after paying $50,000 in port charges; the plan was to utilize the ship as a visitor attraction.

According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town/city has a total region of 2.5 square miles (6.5 km2), all land.

In the city, the populace was spread out with 32.1% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older.

Ralph Falsetta - state senator from 1975 to 1976; former mayor of Donaldsonville Stephen Hopkins - Brigadier general, War of 1812/Battle of New Orleans, Louisiana House Speaker (1812) Landry Tomb, in Ascension Catholic Cemetery, Donaldsonville National Register of Historic Places listings in Ascension Parish, Louisiana Cajun and Cajuns: Genealogy site for Cajun, Acadian and Louisiana genealogy, history and culture a b >"10 Best Free Things to Do in Ascension Parish" The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today.

Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

City's website, history of Donaldsonville Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963, ISBN 0-8071-0834-0, p.

"Fort Butler Memorial", Donaldsonville Chief, 16 July 2008, accessed 18 October 2013 Ron Stodghill, "Driving Back Into Louisiana's History", NY Times, 26 May 2008, accessed 7 July 2008 Donaldsonville Chief Ron Stodghill, "Driving Back Into Louisiana's History", The New York Times, 25 May 2008, accessed 7 July 2008] City of Donaldsonville website Photo of Donaldsonville historical marker National Park Service web page on Donaldsonville Historic District Wikimedia Commons has media related to Donaldsonville, Louisiana.

Municipalities and communities of Ascension Parish, Louisiana, United States Parish seats of Louisiana State of Louisiana

Categories:
Populated places established in 1806 - Cities in Ascension Parish, Louisiana - Former state capitals in the United States - Cities in Louisiana - Parish seats in Louisiana - Cities in the Baton Rouge urbane region - Louisiana Isleno communities - Louisiana populated places on the Mississippi River