Winn Parish /

Winn Parish (French: Paroisse de Winn) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Its seat is Winnfield. In 2000, its population was 16,894. The parish has a total area of 957 square miles (2,478 km²), of which, 950 square miles (2,462 km²) of it is land and 6 square miles (17 km²) of it (0.67%) is water. Winn is separated from Natchitoches Parish along U.S. Highway 71 by Saline Bayou, the first blackwater protected waterway in the American South. Winn Parish was established in 1852 from lands which had belonged to the parishes of Catahoula, Natchitoches, and Rapides. During the Civil War, David Pierson, a young attorney, was elected to represent the parish at the Secession Convention called in January 1861 by Governor Thomas Overton Moore in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Pierson voted against secession and refused, along with several others, to change his "no" vote at the end of the process when asked to do so to make the final tally unanimous. There was little military action in Winn Parish during the Civil War, but there was a problem with conscripts fleeing into the wooded areas to avoid military duty. The Confederate States Army defeated a Union detachment sent to destroy a