Campti, Louisiana

Campti is a small town in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,057 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Natchitoches Micropolitan Statistical Area. Campti is a flat area of mostly farmland. It sets on the eastern bank of the Red River. Considerable cattle are also raised in the general area.
Lakeview Junior and Senior High School, a modern consolidated school structure housing pre-kindergarten and grades nine through twelve, is located east of Campti on Louisiana Highway 9. The school is 55 percent white in enrollment, but Campti itself is some 75 percent African American in population. Students from as far north as Ashland attend Lakeview.
During the American Civil War, Union General A.J. Smith, with two brigades, reached Campti to assist Admiral David Dixon Porter's trapped gunboats on the Red River there. Smith and his men burned Campti, which then contained only a few buildings and houses. The gunboats were returned safely upriver to Grand Ecore in Natchitoches Parish.