The Big Cane Rifles were formed in the fall of 1861 at Big Cane, Louisiana. The original troops came from the St. Landry, Evangeline and Avoyelles Parishes of Louisiana. They traveled to Camp Moore where they became Company K of the 16th Louisiana Infantry. During the next four years, as they made their way through major civil war theatres at Shilow, Murfreesboro, Atlanta and Mobile Bay, their numbers declined from battlefield and hospital deaths. They recruited men from Mississippi, Tennesssee, Alabama and Georgia to join them.