Franklin Plantation
At the time of the Civil War, Franklin Plantation was owned by Dr. Allen T. Bowie. Other planters of this prosperous section of Louisiana owned more property and grew more bales of cotton, but Dr. Bowle's mansion was the grandest. A Confederate from Missouri reported the Lake St. Joseph country was "unsurpassed in beauty and richness by any of the same extent.... in the world".
The officers in charge of the XIII and XVII Corps kept a tight rein on their troops, and the stately mansions were unharmed as they marches southward. When the troops of Gen. W.T. Sherman's XV Corps pressed forward to join Gen. U.S. Grant and his invasion of Mississippi, his soldiers got out of hand. On May 6, 1863 a number of rowdies from Gen. J.M. Tuttle's division burned most of the mansions which faced Lake St. Joseph, including Dr. Bowie's.