Lake Providence, Louisiana

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Lake Providence is a town in and the parish seat of East Carroll Parish.

History
The Lake Providence area was first opened for settlement in the late 1830s, when the cypress swamps were drained and the land cleared for habitation. By 1861, at the start of the American Civil Wart, the region consisted entirely of large cotton plantations.

The town of Lake Providence got its start with the arrival of the Union Army in the spring of 1862. Under the direction of General Grant, Lake Providence was established as a supply depot and base of operations for the Vicksburg Campaign. As freed or runaway slaves swarmed into the camp from surrounding plantations, the population quickly soared from a few hundred, to several thousand. By the fall of the Mississippi River to the Union in 1863, most planters in the Lake Providence area had fled, leaving behind their vacant estates.

Websites

 * Lake Providence Progress
 * City Data Page
 * Lake Providence