Bridges Across Holt's Bayou and Bayou du Rosset
To facilitate the concentration of the Union Army at Hard Times, Gen. J.A. McClernand ordered his troops to reconnoiter a road from Somerset along the western shore of Lake St. Joseph. Col. J. Keigwin was placed in charge of this project. Keigwin's force left Somerset on April 25, 1863. A four mile march brought the Federals to Holt's Bayou, one-half mile north of this marker. To slow the Union advance, Maj. I.F. Harrison's Louisianans had burned the bridge which spanned Holt's Bayou, as well as the one across Bayou Du Rosset, a short distance beyond. Keigwin soon has his men at work rebuilding the bridges with lumber ripped from buildings at the nearby Douglas and Wyoming Plantations. By nightfall, the two bridges had been completed.