Excluding the capture of New Orleans, the military affairs in southeast Louisiana during the American Civil War have long been viewed by scholars and historians has having no strategic importance during the war. As such, no such serious effort to chronicle the war in that portion of the state has been attempted, except Pena's earlier book, Touched By War: Battles Fought in the Lafourche District (1998). That book covered the military affairs in southeast Louisiana that led to the five major battles fought in that region between fall 1862 and summer 1863. Beyond that point, little is chronicled, until now. In this thoroughly researched and authoritative book, Scarred By War: Civil War in Southeast Louisiana, Christopher Pena has revised and updated his earlier work and expanded the scope to include a study of the remaining two years of the war, a period filled with intense Confederate guerilla warfare. The literary result is a book that recounts the political, social, military, and economic aspects of the war as they played out in southeast Louisiana's bayou country.

After discovering additional information pertaining to his paternal side of the family, author Christopher G. Pena revised his original book to provide the reader with a richly detailed account of each member of the Pena-Lara family, along with their respective spouses. Both highly informative and engaging, The Pena-Lara Story: Revisited retraces the family's roots that began in New Spain (Mexico), including the military exploits of the family's patriarch, Lt. Col. Jose Emeterio Pozas, who served under Spain and Mexico. In addition, the story includes an account of the family's life in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, the Pena-Lara's forced evacuation of the city during the height of the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution, the family's assimilation into the United States, including the military service of six of the Pena-Lara sons during the Second World War and, finally, the family's postwar years. It is a family chronicle that includes almost two centuries of history telling. The Pena-Lara Story: Revisited provides the reader with a wealth of new and detailed information about the family's origins, some of which was recently discovered during an exhaustive search through Mexican Civil and Church archival records, as well as many United States civil and religious documents. This information now enlightens - and contradicts - long-held beliefs about the origins and lives of the Pena-Lara lineage.

After discovering additional information pertaining to his paternal side of the family, author Christopher G. Pena revised his original book to provide the reader with a richly detailed account of each member of the Pena-Lara family, along with their respective spouses. Both highly informative and engaging, The Pena-Lara Story: Revisited retraces the family's roots that began in New Spain (Mexico), including the military exploits of the family's patriarch, Lt. Col. Jose Emeterio Pozas, who served under Spain and Mexico. In addition, the story includes an account of the family's life in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, the Pena-Lara's forced evacuation of the city during the height of the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution, the family's assimilation into the United States, including the military service of six of the Pena-Lara sons during the Second World War and, finally, the family's postwar years. It is a family chronicle that includes almost two centuries of history telling. The Pena-Lara Story: Revisited provides the reader with a wealth of new and detailed information about the family's origins, some of which was recently discovered during an exhaustive search through Mexican Civil and Church archival records, as well as many United States civil and religious documents. This information now enlightens - and contradicts - long-held beliefs about the origins and lives of the Pena-Lara lineage.

Excluding the capture of New Orleans, the military affairs in southeast Louisiana during the American Civil War have long been viewed by scholars and historians has having no strategic importance during the war. As such, no such serious effort to chronicle the war in that portion of the state has been attempted, except Pena's earlier book, Touched By War: Battles Fought in the Lafourche District (1998). That book covered the military affairs in southeast Louisiana that led to the five major battles fought in that region between fall 1862 and summer 1863. Beyond that point, little is chronicled, until now. In this thoroughly researched and authoritative book, Scarred By War: Civil War in Southeast Louisiana, Christopher Pena has revised and updated his earlier work and expanded the scope to include a study of the remaining two years of the war, a period filled with intense Confederate guerilla warfare. The literary result is a book that recounts the political, social, military, and economic aspects of the war as they played out in southeast Louisiana's bayou country.