The first Barataria Bay Lighthouse was constructed in 1856 on Grand Terre Island, Louisiana made famous as the headquarters of buccaneer Jean LaFitte. It was Lafitte and his band of pirates who came to the aid of Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans and saved the town from the British in the War of 1812. The lighthouse was most likely named after LaFitte's so called pirate headquarters Barataria.
The first lighthouse was discontinued in 1859 since there simply was not enough traffic to warrant a lighthouse. At the end of the Civil War the Army asked the Lighthouse Board to reactivate the light.
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