Coppens (First Louisiana Zouaves) Battalion Company C

A WoR regiment

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Company C was comprised mostly of men of French or Louisiana Creole French heritage and would take part in one of the most bitter small action fights of the Civil war at Hagerstown Pike where Confederate and Union troops fought eyeball to eyeball over a small road.

With General McClellan closing on his scattered Corps faster than expected after defeating the Confederate troops at The Battle of South Mountain , Lee summoned his army together at Sharpsburg, Maryland combining what remained from the battle of South Mountain and the Siege of Harpers ferry which the 1st Louisiana Zouaves Infantry Battalion had been part of. The Louisianans arrived on the afternoon of September 16th. The Zouaves were now under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Marie Alfred Coppens, Lt. Colonel Gaston Coppens had been placed in command of the 8th Florida Regiment. The Battalion was placed, facing north, in position west of the Hagerstown road.

The Battle of Shaprsburg began at first light with Federal artillery firing on the brigades of Douglass, Trimble, and Hays. The Second Louisiana Brigade held its reserve position, until finally called upon to help repel the assault of General Hooker’s Division. Starke’s men came down the west side of the sunken road, through a small patch of woods, and crashed headlong into the attacking Federals. General Starke fell dead, pierced by three balls, as both sides unleashed tremendous volleys into each other. It was once again the tough western regiments of the Iron Brigade that the Louisianans battled in the West Woods and along the Hagerstown Pike this day firing at one another from extreme close range with little cover. Although their stand was defiant, the overwhelming pressure of the Union numbers and from being shot from in front and behind the Union Troops forced the Brigade to fall back to new positions near the Dunker Church where it remained for the remainder of the battle. The Zouave Battalion which had marched so proudly out of New Orleans with 600 men, now presented only 12 men present for duty. As the lists of the casualties from the bloodiest day in American history were compiled, the name of Lieutenant Colonel Gaston Coppens was numbered with the dead.