This relic is a corner piece from a 0.75” thick iron plate once used to cover a casemate at Fort DeRussy. This fragment is 5” x 3”. This piece features a hole where the plate would have been bolted to framework and broke off along that weak spot. Iron is rusty and pitted but has been coated.

This comes from the Gregory A. Coco collection. It was recovered at Fort DeRussy, Louisiana in 1972.

Fort DeRussy was a Confederate earthwork built in 1862 to defend the lower Red River Valley in Louisiana. The fort was named for Colonel Lewis G. DeRussy, the oldest West Point graduate to serve in the Confederate Army. A portion of Rear Admiral David D. Porter's Mississippi Squadron captured the fort on May 5, 1863, with portions being destroyed on May 9, 1863, by the USS Benton. The remnants of the garrison at the fort surrendered to the Union Army on March 14, 1864.

Gregory A. Coco was born in Marksville, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana in 1946. He served in Vietnam and was a Park Ranger at Gettysburg NMP for many years. Greg enjoyed historical research and authored many books relating to the Battle of Gettysburg, most notably “A Vast Sea of Misery” and “A Strange and Blighted Land”.   [jet] [ph:L]

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