The gravesite of Helaire Blanchard of the 4th Louisiana Infantry in St. Bernard Catholic Cemetery, Breaux Bridge, LA. Helaire was a musician in the 4th, was captured probably in Mississippi in July 1863, and ended up in Camp Morton, the big Yankee prisoner of war camp in Indiana. In March 1865, before the war ended, he not only took the oath of allegiance to the United States but also joined a Federal unit, becoming a Galvanized Yankee! Despite this record, he is buried beneath a UCV stone, surrounded by Confederate veterans who served the South honorably.
photos by the author, summer of 2002