Winter Quarters State Historic Site

Winter Quarters in Tensas Parish, Louisiana, United States, is a surviving example of an Antebellum cotton plantation. It is located south of Newellton on Lake St. Joseph, an ox-bow lake, or former bend in the Mississippi River. The main plantation home began as a hunting lodge in 1805 but was soon enlarged and became a residence. Before the Vicksburg Campaign of 1863 during the American Civil War, there were fifteen plantations along Lake St. Joseph. However, Union troops destroyed all but Winter Quarters, where the soldiers were housed during the winter of 1862-1863.