author
Louis Alfred Wiltz
1843–1881
A Louisiana political leader who also left behind a vivid firsthand account of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1874. His short life moved from Civil War service to city and state office, ending while he was serving as governor.
1 Audiobook
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1874: Its Extent, Duration, and Effects
by Louis Alfred Wiltz
About the author
Born in New Orleans on January 21, 1843, he grew up in Louisiana and later served in the Civil War with the New Orleans Artillery. After the war, he entered public life and rose quickly through state and city politics, serving in the Louisiana House of Representatives, as mayor of New Orleans, lieutenant governor, and then governor of Louisiana.
He is remembered today mainly as a politician, but he also wrote The Great Mississippi Flood of 1874: Its Extent, Duration, and Effects, a contemporary account of one of the region's major disasters. That book gives him a place in print history as well as political history.
His term as governor was brief: he took office in 1880 and died in New Orleans on October 16, 1881, reportedly of tuberculosis. Even so, his career touched several important parts of Louisiana's 19th-century story, from war and reconstruction-era politics to disaster response and public office.