The tract of Jacob Picard and Augustin Lasserre was south of the present public road at Molaison, and it was on this tract that a footpath to Chackbay was started in the 1830's. In the civil War this was enlarged as a military road, which oral history informs passed between the present Tri-Corner and Molaison. From there it continued south to a ridge called "Coteau a Gros John" (Picard}, or "Coteau a Charles" (Falgoust), where it turned southwestwardly to join with Coteau L'Ours, which it crossed in the area of the old trash dump. There, it followed Coteau Cheval, parallel to the left side of the present Highway 20 from Molaison to Chackbay. Midway from Molaison to Bayou Chevreuil, the ridge's hump can be seen across the present highway, and at that point, the military road's location runs parallel to the right side of the highway on a high oak ridge. Led by guides in the summer of 1862, Colonel George Wailes, the commander of the militia of St. Charles Parish and St. John the Baptist, and Captain Louis Ranson of St. James Parish, traveled along this path to reach Bayou Lafourche. In his later accounts, Colonel Wailes reported that (from Vacherie/Molaison) they "took a cut-off across the Chackbay swamps, by a blind path or chantier, as it was called by the few residents on each side of the swamp, and in a few hours reached Colonel Vick's camp at Raceland, a trip to make which by the public road along the banks of the Mississippi and Lafourche would have required at least two days of hard riding (by horse)". Wailes and Ranson met at Raceland with Colonels Vick and Bisland of the Lafourche and the Terrebonne militias in order to decide on a plan for attacking a Federal fort at Bayou Des Allemands, where the present town of Des Allemands later developed. The post at that location was the only one west of New Orleans held by the Federals, and it was connected to New Orleans by a railroad. The intention of the Federals was to make this post a depot for supplies and a base of operations into Lafourche, Terrebonne, and St. Mary parishes. At Raceland, Wailes and Ranson found that the plans under consideration were to attack the post on Bayou Des Allemands by boats "through the interlacing network of shallow inland water-ways". According to Colonel Wailes, this plan and all others under consideration were dropped after Captain Ranson convinced everyone that the true route for an attacking force to take was along the path across the Chackbay swamp that they had traveled that morning. Apparently, the Federals would have expected a frontal attack by boats, but they could be surprised by an attack from the rear. Following the meeting, men from the Lafourche and Terrebonne militias under Vick and Bisland constructed a military road across the Chackbay swamp as far as the Vacherie Settlement. They built a bride over "a deep and sluggish bayou" (Chevreuil), about 300 yards to the right of the present Bayou Chevreuil bridge, where nearby the remains of pilings can still be seen across "La Bay Rond" when the water level is low. They built a dirt bridge over a western section of "La Bay Rond", between Coteau De La Bay Rond and Coteau Sylvere, which still exists, as does the borrow pit from which they took the dirt, a spot well known to the author and few others. While the road was being constructed across the swamp from Chackbay to Vacherie, men under Wailes and Ranson constructed a road from Vacherie to present Luling by connecting the turnovers (headlands) on the various plantations in the rear of the cane fields (at the 40-arpent line). In August, 1862, when the cane was high and activity on the road was hidden from Federal gunboats on the river, a militia force of men from Lafourche, Terrebonne, and St. Mary parishes moved along the military road through Vacherie to St. Charles Parish to join with the militia under Colonel Wailes. At St. Charles Parish, the Confederate militia force traveled a road to the Boutte railroad station, where a trainload of Federal soldiers and supplies was captured. From there, the Confederates traveled eight miles down the railroad to Bayou Des Allemands. where the Federal fort was surprised and captured. The battle of Bayou Des Allemands was the first victory of the Confederates in Louisiana after the fall of New Orleans. This attracted attention, and the people rejoiced at this small success, in which Vacherie played a part. If their names had been recorded, no doubt we would recognize the names of Vacherie men who were the guides who pointed out the "chantiers" from Vacherie to Bayou Lafourche. Following the Civil War, "Le Chemin Militaire", as it was known, became the main road between Chackbay and Vacherie. It was later used by the young people "pour allez a les dances aux Chackbay" (the route to the Chackbay dances held in private homes).