Lorenzo

by Casso, Evans J.

• ISBN13: 9781565545441
• ISBN10: 1565545443
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1972-12-01
• Publisher: PELICAN PUBLISHING CO

Summary

Lorenzo Casso left his motherland of Italyduring the turbulent years when Garibaldi was waging civil war across the landand, soon after his arrival in the United States, found himself caught up inthe American Civil War. He became Ascension Parish's first Italian immigrant,settling in Donaldsonville, where he married a Louisiana Creole and founded theCasso family in Louisiana. His descendants now total almost five hundred.Pestilence, flood, crop failure, civil strife, death, destruction anddisappointment-the age-old elements in man's struggle for existence-are allchronicled in this vivid and moving account of one family's life on theLouisiana frontier.Evans J. Casso writes about his Venetian grandfather with poignancy andadmiration, while capturing the drama and pathos that characterized thefamily's rich history. His maternal ancestry, which is thoroughly French,reaches back into Louisiana's early history to such grandsires as Felix Babin,Theodule Richard, and Jean Baptiste Gaudin, a prominent sugar planter,landowner, and slave-holder in antebellum Ascension Parish.ABOUT THE AUTHORA scholar of the American Civil War and Napoleonic history, Evans Casso haslectured before civic groups, high schools, and universities. A frequentvisitor to Europe, he has pursued the ghosts of Napoleon's armies across thecontinent and researched much of the battlefield action on the actual sites. Heis an honorary member of the Central Bonaparte Committee of Corsica and serveson an international commission to preserve the Bonapartes' summer home(Milelli) on Corsica.Casso is past president of the New Orleans Civil War Round Table and hasserved on its executive committee. From 1961-65 he served on the Civil WarCentennial commission of Orleans Parish. He is a member of the ConfederateHistorical Society of Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England, and is active in theCouncil for the Development of French in Louisiana.The author was educated at Old St. Joseph's Commercial Institute, theCatholic high schools of Donaldsonville, and Louisiana State University. He isthe father of two daughters and two foster sons, and has three grandchildren.He and his wife, the former Madeleine Noto, reside in New Orleans.