John Lyons (Louisiana)

John Lyons (b. c. 1822 – September 23, 1864) was a carpenter, bridge builder, cotton-plantation owner, and steamship captain of Louisiana, United States.

[1] Lyons is best known today as the enslaver of Peter of the scourged back, who escaped to Union lines in 1863,[2] and whose whip-scarred body ultimately became a representative of the physical violence inherent to the American slavery system.

[3] Lyons was shot and killed in his home during a raid by a U.S. military detachment into the Atchafalaya River basin in autumn of 1864; he was apparently personally targeted by someone in the squad named Watson with whom he had an existing conflict.

John Lyons lived in a section of Louisiana that in his time was considered a part of Acadiana and by the end of the 19th century would come to be known as Cajun country.

The region, originally home to the Appalousa and Atakapa people, was first colonized by the French and Spanish, and later became part of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase.

In the early 19th century the region had a very meager network of surface roads, trails, bridges, and ferries; the New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western Railroad was organized in the decade prior to the American Civil War.

In 1853 a John Lyons Sr. of Roberts Cove, Parish of Saint Landry, died and the residue of his estate, including 53 slaves, six creole horses, and about 1400 head of cattle, was auctioned off.

His work was admired:[14]An appropriation of $4000 was made by our Police Jury some six months ago for the construction of a draw bridge over the Courtableau.

The other day, as we were passing by, Mr. John Lyons, the undertaker, invited us to come and witness the working of this bridge, which is now ready to be delivered; and we must acknowledge that we were surprised to see such a heavy mass of timber moved by one man, and that too without any difficulty.

[21] In March of that year, Lyons was compelled to place a notice in the newspapers "TO THE PUBLIC IN GENERAL...There is a report circulating through the country and New-Orleans, that the steamer Mary Bess is an unsafe boat, and that there is no insurance on her.

"[26][27] In March 1859 The New Orleans Crescent reported that the Bayou Belle had arrived in town bearing "with 59 bales cotton, 29 hhds.

[29] The 1860 slaves schedules for Louisiana record that John Lyons owned 38 people, the oldest being a 60-year-old man, the youngest being a one-year-old girl.

[32] In spring 1863, an enslaved man by the name of Peter escaped Confederate-controlled Louisiana and made his way to the U.S. Army, which was operating under General Nathaniel P. Banks' General Order 12, Promulgation of the Emancipation Proclamation: "Officers and soldiers will not encourage or assist slaves to leave their employers, but they cannot compel or authorize their return by force.

"[33] A photograph of Peter's heavily scarred back and excerpts from his explanation of what had happened to him were widely promulgated to the general public by anti-slavery advocates.

According to a contemporary account in the Opelousas Courier, "It has been reported here that the federals had crossed three or four hundred men at Morgan's Ferry, on the Atchafalaya, on Wednesday last.

It would seem that the yankees made a raid at his house, and among the raiders was a man by the name of Watson, who had formerly lived in the neighborhood, and who had a grudge against Lyons.

It mentioned the killing of Lyons as part of the wartime circumstances in the region, albeit as a one-off event distinct from the main invasion: "On the 22d of March the rear guard of the 'grand army' passed the northern limits of St. Landry.

— Since then, with the exception of occasional visits to the wooded outskirts, from military posts on the Mississippi, by marauders who came to open a ballot box, in which to deposit their own votes; or to capture or marder an unoffending citizen, this district has been free from the tread of the enemy....Recently a raid was made in that part of St. Landry which stretches along the upper Atchafalaya, by a body of federal troops from Morganzia.

A party of soldiers from this body, conducted by a soi-disant Union man who had been driven from the country for his crimes, went at midnight to the house of Mr. John Lyons, once well known as a popular and skillful commander of steamboats on the inland waters of this district, then a respectable planter, and calling him out from his bed, cruelly murdered him on the threshold of his own door.

"[5] In October 1865 the household goods and livestock of John and Bridget Lyons were put up for auction by the administrator of their estate, a neighbor by the name of Hudspeth.

[37] In 1870 property that belonged to the estate was being auctioned off, including the family home in Washington, and a warehouse lot that had once stood near the saw mill and the drawbridge on Bayou Cortebleau.