Double Bridges, Louisiana. In the far tree line is the site of the second of two bridges that spanned the Dupont bayou near Robeline, LA. The Federal army in retreat from its early loss at Mansfield, burned the bridge. A caisson of captured Confederate shells was left in the middle of the bridge and tumbled into the water below. It remained there until October 15, 1969 when the bayou temporarily dried up and Wilbur Davis discovered the caisson remains and the projectiles inside. As Terry Waxham recounted, “it was an exciting day and sad day for him. He got so excited that he suffered a major heart attack and crawled a great distance to an old house for help. He lived for a few years after this and suffered another heart attack and died. His son, Larry is one of my best friends… No shells had fuses in them and quite a few of the three flame groove parrots (Marshall Texas Reads) were found in the bayou with them. Tom Dickey was the first to use Provencal as the location in his first book, probably to keep the hordes of relic hunters at bay until the area was well hunted and twenty years later a few of the shells were still being found on top of the hill there.”
This picture was taken on March 5, 2008 from my car from a bridge on rte 120 over the bayou.