The town of Franklin sat along the river and the regiment stopped here for several days. But soon several regiments, including the 130th, pushed on to New Iberia, another town on the Bayou Teche.
Nearly all the inhabitants of this area were French, and many of them could not speak any English. The soldiers found it amusing and curious to hear the "Negroes" speaking in a foreign language, rather than the "slave-speak" they were accustomed to.
The well-to-do people lived in quaint old houses. Before the war some of them were very wealthy. These French were genuine Creoles.
