New Orleans: April-May 1862 :
Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, Louisiana (LA001) , Plaquemines Parish, April 16-28, 1862
The Union's "Anaconda Plan" for isolating the Confederacy from its European markets included gaining control of the Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois, to the Gulf of Mexico. The key to the river was New Orleans, the South's largest port, greatest industrial center, and only city with a prewar population of more than 170,000 people. The Confederacy needed to sell its cotton to British mills to sustain its economy and assumed that Great Britain would give its official recognition of the Confederacy as a new nation in order to ensure that southern cotton would reach its mills. The Union blockade of its ports gave the South a ready excuse to stockpile cotton until the British agreed to recognize the Confederacy, but the plan to secure recognition failed. Not only was there strong British opposition to slavery in the Confederacy, but British textile mills were overstocked in 1861. Although there was a brief cotton shortage, it was followed by higher international cotton prices. In response India and Egypt planted more cotton so that they, not the Confederacy, supplied most of the cotton to Europe from 1862 to 1865. Trade between the United States and Europe increased because crop failures on the Continent resulted in the purchase of U.S. farm products.
When Union armies advanced through West and Middle Tennessee under US Major Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell, the Confederates stripped New Orleans of defenders. They expected the main threat to the city to come from the north rather than from the Gulf of Mexico. The Federals, however, were preparing to seize New Orleans with an amphibious force. USN Flag Officer David G. Farragut's Western Gulf Blockading Squadron entered the Mississippi in March from the Gulf of Mexico. At Head of Passes he assembled seventeen steam-powered warships and USN Commander David D. Porter's twenty-one mortar schooners and six gunboats. US Major General Benjamin F. Butler concentrated 15,000 men on Ship Island, preparing to occupy the city. The Confederates had obstructed the river about seventy miles below New Orleans with sunken hulks and a chain stretched across the river. Fort Jackson on the west bank protected the area. Fort St. Philip, across the river, was supported by CSN Flag Officer John K. Mitchell's River Defense Fleet and the ironclad Louisiana, which had no motor power. Together these two forts mounted more than one hundred heavy guns.
On April 18 Porter's mortar schooners began shelling Fort Jackson, the closer and more powerful of the two forts. The next day Confederate fire sank one of the schooners, but Porter repositioned some of his boats and continued to pulverize the fort. Two of Farragut's gunboats forced a break in the obstructions on the night of April 20. Porter continued the bombardment for three days but was unable to silence Fort Jackson's guns. On April 24 at 3:30 a.m. Farragut's warships began to steam through the breach. The Hartford, Farragut's flagship, ran aground in front of Fort St. Philip and was set ablaze by a fire raft, but the crew quickly put the fire out. Under heavy fire fourteen warships steamed past the masonry forts and engaged the Confederate flotilla. The Federals sank or captured thirteen enemy vessels, including the armored ram Manassas, while losing only the Varuna. This battle, followed by the destruction of the fleet at Memphis on June 6, ended the Confederate naval threat on the Mississippi River, except for the ironclad ram Arkansas.
After Farragut's fleet passed the forts, Butler landed his troops at Quarantine, five miles north of Fort St. Philip. On the night of April 27 the demoralized garrison of Fort Jackson mutinied, and half of the troops abandoned the fort. The next day the Confederates blew up the Louisiana, and CS Brigadier General Johnson K. Duncan surrendered the two forts to Porter.
Estimated Casualties: 229 US, 782 CS
New Orleans: April-May 1862 :
New Orleans, Louisiana (LA002) , St. Bernard and Orleans Parishes, April 25-May 1, 1862
The fall of New Orleans was inevitable after USN Flag Officer Farragut passed Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip. CS Major General Mansfield Lovell ordered the city evacuated and withdrew all troops, guns, and supplies. The Confederates burned the stockpiled cotton on the wharves, destroyed the uncompleted ironclad the Mississippi, and sank dozens of vessels.
The fourteen warships of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron reached New Orleans on April 25, silenced the batteries at Slaughter House Point, and dropped anchor. Farragut and the local authorities wrangled over the city's surrender, pending the arrival of the army. Four days later the mayor surrendered, and 250 marines guarded City Hall against an angry mob while the state flag was hauled down. US General Butler's troops occupied New Orleans on May 1. Farragut was promoted to rear admiral on July 16, the first officer to hold that rank in the U.S. Navy.
Union occupation of the Confederacy's largest city, combined with the effective blockade of southern ports (all significant harbors were Union controlled or blockaded except Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina), had international significance in decreasing cotton exports and the likelihood of European recognition of the Confederacy. When New Orleans fell, the South also lost the city's vital industrial capacity. The Confederacy's other major shipbuilding center, Norfolk, Virginia, fell on May 10.
Estimated Casualties: none
Louisiana: August-October 1862 :
Baton Rouge, Louisiana (LA003) , East Baton Rouge Parish, August 5, 1862
After the fall of New Orleans in April 1862, USN Flag Officer David G. Farragut's fleet steamed up the Mississippi River, passed the Vicksburg batteries in late June, and joined USN Flag Officer Charles H. Davis's Mississippi Squadron upstream. On July 15 the Confederate ironclad ram Arkansas headed down the Yazoo River and battled its way to Vicksburg through the combined Union squadrons. Though heavily damaged, the ram disabled the Carondelet. That night Farragut ran the gauntlet again in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Arkansas. A week later the Essex attacked the Arkansas at its anchorage before joining Farragut downstream. A few days later Farragut departed with his fleet for New Orleans, stopping to land US Brigadier General Thomas Williams and 3,200 soldiers at Baton Rouge, the former Confederate capital of Louisiana.
Farragut's departure led CS Major General Earl Van Dorn to seize control of a larger part of the Mississippi River. He sent the damaged Arkansas downriver toward Baton Rouge, but the engines failed. As the USS Essex prepared to attack the stranded ship, the crew blew it up. CS Major General John C. Breckinridge, formerly vice president of the United States, had headed down the railroad from Jackson, Mississippi, with 4,000 men from the Vicksburg garrison to recapture Baton Rouge. The Confederate land forces reached the eastern outskirts of Baton Rouge on August 5 and attacked at 4:30 a.m. Heavy fog, friendly fire, and unnecessary redeploying slowed their advance, but when one regiment on the Federal left broke, a rout followed. US Colonel Thomas W. Cahill assumed command when Williams was killed. His men continued to flee to the river, where shells from Union gunboats halted the pursuing Confederates. The Federals evacuated Baton Rouge on August 21. The Confederates occupied Port Hudson, twenty-five miles upriver, where they constructed a bastion nearly as strong as that of Vicksburg to control the Mississippi River between the two strongholds.
Estimated Casualties: 371 US, 478 CS
Louisiana: August-October 1862 :
Donaldsonville I, Louisiana (LA004) , Ascension Parish, August 9, 1862
David G. Farragut had been promoted to rear admiral rank as of July but did not learn of it until he reached New Orleans. In early August he decided to silence the Confederate sharpshooters at Donaldsonville, who were firing on Union shipping on the Mississippi. Farragut warned the town that the women and children should be evacuated. On August 9 he anchored in front of the town, bombarded it, and sent a detachment ashore to burn hotels, wharf buildings, houses, and buildings of the partisan leader, Phillippe Landry. The naval action temporarily stopped
the firing on Federal shipping.
Estimated Casualties: unknown
Louisiana: August-October 1862 :
Georgia Landing, Louisiana (LA005) , Lafourche Parish, October 27, 1862
US Major General Benjamin F. Butler ordered 4,000 Department of the Gulf troops under US Brigadier General Godfrey Weitzel to the Lafourche region. They were to eliminate the Confederate threat there, seize sugar and cotton, and establish a base for future military operations. On October 25 Weitzel's men reached the confluence of Bayou Lafourche and the Mississippi River at Donaldsonville and advanced up the east bank of the bayou. CS Brigadier General Alfred Mouton ordered his forces to meet the threat. On the twenty-seventh the Confederates occupied positions on opposite banks of the bayou near Georgia Landing above Labadieville. Mouton could not unite his forces because the nearest bridge across the bayou was several miles away at Labadieville.
In a short skirmish the Federals drove back the Confederates on the east bank, then crossed on their pontoon bridge to the west bank and attacked Mouton's other force there. The Confederates stalled the Union advance until they ran out of ammunition. Mouton withdrew to Labadieville, abandoning control of much of the Lafourche region.
Estimated Casualties: 86 US, 229 CS
West Louisiana: April 1863 :
Fort Bisland, Louisiana (LA006) , St. Mary Parish, April 12-13, 1863
In April 1863, while US Major General Ulysses S. Grant was preparing his Vicksburg campaign, US Major General Nathaniel P. Banks concluded that Port Hudson was too strong for him to take by assault. He decided instead to defeat CS Major General Richard Taylor, capture Alexandria, and cut Port Hudson's supply line via the Red River. Banks launched an expedition with 16,000 men of the XIX Corps up Bayou Teche. Two divisions crossed Berwick Bay from Brashear City (now Morgan City) to the west side at Berwick, while a third, under US Brigadier General Cuvier Grover, steamed up Grand Lake to cut Taylor's retreat route.
On April 12 Taylor's command at Fort Bisland hit the approaching Federals with fire from the fort and the captured gunboat Diana. Banks's artillery returned fire and the following morning disabled the Diana. Banks deployed his troops and waited for Grover to land. Skirmishing began at 11:00 a.m. and continued until nightfall. Taylor learned that Grover's division was on the west bank of Bayou Teche and evacuated the fort that night. The Federals took control of the only fortification that could have impeded their offensive.
Estimated Casualties: 224 US, 450 CS
West Louisiana: April 1863 :
Irish Bend, Louisiana (LA007) , St. Mary Parish, April 14, 1863
To protect his supply trains moving away from Fort Bisland, CS General Taylor deployed 1,000 men at Irish Bend. US General Grover's 5,000-man division crossed Bayou Teche on April 13. The Confederates attacked at dawn on April 14 and forced Grover to fall back under intense fire. The repaired gunboat Diana arrived to anchor the Confederate right flank on the river. As Grover prepared to attack, the outnumbered Confederates blew up the Diana and retreated up the bayou.
Estimated Casualties: 353 US, unknown CS
West Louisiana: April 1863 :
Vermillion Bayou, Louisiana (LA008) , Lafayette Parish, April 17, 1863
On April 17 the Confederates reached Vermillionville (now Lafayette), crossed Vermillion Bayou, destroyed the bridge over the bayou, and halted to rest. One of US General Banks's columns reached the bayou while the bridge was burning, advanced, and began skirmishing. Confederate artillery, strategically placed, forced the Federal troops to fall back. After an artillery duel, the Confederates retreated to Opelousas. Banks followed, seizing control of Bayou Teche, the Atchafalaya River, and the Red River up to Alexandria. His expedition was successful in severing Port Hudson's lifeline to the west.
Estimated Casualties: unknown
Siege of Port Hudson: May-July 1863 :
Plains Store, Louisiana (LA009) , East Baton Rouge Parish, May 21, 1863
The Confederate strongholds at Vicksburg and Port Hudson protected the vital stretch of the Mississippi River that carried reinforcements and supplies between the trans-Mississippi region and the eastern Confederacy. On May 14 an army of three divisions under US Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, formerly the Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and governor of Massachusetts, moved on Port Hudson from the north down the Red and Mississippi Rivers. Simultaneously, US Major General Christopher C. Augur's division advanced north from Baton Rouge toward the intersection of the Plains Store and Bayou Sara Roads to secure a landing on the Mississippi below Port Hudson. If these two forces were to unite—Banks from the north and Augur from the south—Port Hudson would be surrounded. CS Colonel Frank P. Powers was dispatched with 600 troops to defend the vital crossroads at Plains Store.
US Colonel N. A. M. Dudley's brigade led Augur's division and skirmished with Powers at 10:00 a.m. on May 21. Powers was low on ammunition and withdrew before the Federals could outflank him. When 400 men under CS Colonel W. R. Miles arrived late in the day, they attacked, routed the 48th Massachusetts Infantry, and captured a cannon. Augur counterattacked with the 116th New York, recaptured the gun, and forced the Confederates back into Port Hudson.
During the Plains Store engagement CS Major General Franklin Gardner, the commander of Port Hudson, received orders from CS General Joseph E. Johnston to evacuate. Responding instead to the instructions of President Jefferson Davis, Gardner requested reinforcements. When Johnston repeated his order on May 23, it was too late. Banks had landed at Bayou Sara at 2:00 a.m. on May 22 and by that evening had effectively blocked Gardner's escape.
Estimated Casualties: 150 US, 100 CS
Siege of Port Hudson: May-July 1863 :
Siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana (LA010) , East Baton Rouge and East Feliciana Parishes, May 22-July 9, 1863
Lawrence Lee Hewitt
Control of the Mississippi River was one of the key objectives of the Union strategists at the beginning of the Civil War. In August 1862 forces under CS Major General John C. Breckinridge, a former vice president of the United States, occupied Port Hudson and began constructing a bastion as formidable as that at Vicksburg.
The terrain immediately surrounding Port Hudson is varied. The Mississippi River, which has eroded the Citadel—a three-sided redoubt that anchored the Confederates' downriver defenses—skirts the southwestern corner of the battlefield. A broad alluvial plain, where the river flowed in 1863, extends westward from the bluff. On the north and northeast the terrain is virtually impassable. Canyonlike ravines, sixty-to eighty-foot bluffs, and dense woods stretch to Foster Creek and beyond. The plateau on the east is grazing land. A mile and a half below Port Hudson, a massive ravine bounds the plateau on the south.
In the spring of 1863 USN Rear Admiral David Glasgow Farragut attempted to force the evacuation of Port Hudson by cutting off the food supplies it received down the Red and Mississippi Rivers. Of his seven vessels that attempted to pass the batteries on the night of March 14, only two, including the flagship Hartford, succeeded. These two vessels proved insufficient to halt the flow of supplies to Port Hudson.
In late March US Major General Nathaniel P. Banks had concentrated his troops west of the Mississippi. His XIX Corps moved up Bayou Teche and seized Alexandria on the Red River. This severed Port Hudson's supply line with the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department west of the Mississippi, but the Confederates continued to garrison Port Hudson.
In mid-May Banks moved down the Red River to attack Port Hudson from the north. Additional Union columns moved north from Baton Rouge and New Orleans to attack from the south and east. When Banks closed the noose on Port Hudson on May 22, his 30,000 soldiers, supported by U.S. Navy vessels both upstream and downstream from the town, faced 7,500 Confederates behind four and a half miles of earthworks.
On the morning of May 27 Banks ordered a simultaneous assault all along the line, but the difficult terrain, vague orders, and uncooperative subordinates prevented a coordinated effort. The Confederates on the north side of Port Hudson, aided by reinforcements drawn from other portions of their line, managed to repulse several assaults against Commissary Hill, Fort Desperate, and along the Telegraph Road. Except for scattered musketry and artillery fire, the fighting along the north front ended before the remainder of Banks's army advanced from the east. The delay allowed the Confederates to redeploy men to repulse the Federal assaults across Slaughter's Field and against the Priest Cap.
That evening the Confederate lines remained unbreached. The terrain contributed to this unexpected turn of events because the thickly wooded ravines on the Union right separated enlisted men from their regimental officers and prevented any organized Federal effort. A withering fire covered the fields in front of the Confederate center and right so that Union soldiers were unable to reach the earthworks. Union losses were 2,000 killed or wounded; Confederate casualties were fewer than 500.
Several hundred of the Federal casualties were black soldiers. These included men of the 1st and 3rd Louisiana Native Guards. The 1st Louisiana Native Guards and a majority of its line officers consisted almost entirely of free blacks from New Orleans. Because of their education, wealth, and status in the community, these men were able to field an all-black unit in the antebellum Louisiana state militia. In the spring of 1862, when the Confederate government refused to arm the regiment, its members offered to fight for the United States.
During the siege of Port Hudson, the Native Guards units were redesignated. The 1st became the First Corps de Afrique; this designation was changed again in April 1864, when it became the 73rd United States Colored Troops. The 3rd Louisiana Native Guards, organized by the government in 1862, was composed of former slaves commanded by white officers. It too was twice redesignated during the war.
In the May 27 assault the 1st and 3rd Louisiana Native Guards advanced across open ground against the strongly fortified position of the 39th Mississippi. US Captain André Cailloux, a free black from New Orleans, led the advance, shouting orders in both English and French until a shell struck him dead. Other black troops waded through the backwater of the Mississippi to engage the enemy. Although repulsed with heavy casualties, the soldiers demonstrated both their willingness and their ability to fight for the Union and for abolition.
Having committed himself, Banks commenced siege operations and ordered sharpshooters and round-the-clock artillery fire. On June 13, after receiving reinforcements and additional cannons, Union gunners opened a tremendous one-hour bombardment. Banks then demanded that the garrison surrender. New York-born CS Major General Franklin Gardner replied, "My duty requires me to defend this position, and therefore I decline to surrender." Banks resumed the bombardment and ordered a full-scale assault the next day.
An entire division, commanded by US Brigadier General Halbert E. Paine and supported by diversionary attacks on the right by US Brigadier General Godfrey Weitzel and on the left by US Brigadier General William Dwight, advanced toward the Priest Cap at about 4:00 a.m. on June 14. A few of the Federals managed to enter the works, but the breach was quickly sealed. By 10:00 a.m. the assault had failed and the Union had suffered 1,805 more casualties.
Banks spent the remainder of June and early July digging approach saps (trenches) and advancing his artillery. Although reduced to eating rats and mules, the Confederates were still holding out on July 7, after forty-six days of siege. When Gardner received word that Vicksburg had surrendered on July 4, however, he negotiated surrender terms. Without its counterpart up the Mississippi, Port Hudson lacked strategic significance.
On July 9 the Confederate garrison grounded arms. The longest true siege in American military history had ended. At Port Hudson about 7,500 Confederates had tied up more than 40,000 Union soldiers for nearly two months. Confederate casualties included 750 killed and wounded and 250 dead of disease. The Federals took 6,500 prisoners, but their own losses were nearly 10,000, almost evenly divided between battle casualties and disease, including sunstroke.
Estimated Casualties: 10,000 US, 7,500 CS
Vicksburg Campaign and Siege: December 1862-July 1863 :
Milliken's Bend, Louisiana (LA011) , Madison Parish, June 7, 1863
Throughout the winter of 1863, Milliken's Bend served as a staging area for US General Grant's operations against Vicksburg. In the flood-plagued camps, thousands of soldiers fell victim to dysentery, diarrhea, typhoid, malaria, and various fevers. The army established hospitals for them as well as for Grant's army during the siege of Vicksburg. The nurses of the U.S. Sanitary Commission helped the army doctors and eased the suffering of the sick and wounded. The commission also furnished supplies of pillows, blankets, clothing, medicine, fresh fruits and vegetables, candles, lanterns, ice, and other needed supplies. Relief efforts were also extended to the thousands of escaped slaves who fled to freedom behind Union lines in Louisiana. Black males were encouraged to enlist in the Union army, and training facilities for them were established at Milliken's Bend, at Goodrich's Landing, and at Lake Providence. These troops were vital in protecting Union supply lines and bases in Louisiana.
On June 6 US Colonel Hermann Lieb led his 9th Louisiana (Colored) Infantry and elements of the 10th Illinois Cavalry on a forced reconnaissance toward Richmond, Louisiana. Lieb encountered Confederate troops near the Tallulah railroad depot three miles north of Richmond and turned back toward Milliken's Bend. Halfway to the post Illinois troopers dashed up behind them, pursued by Confederate cavalry. A well-directed volley by the black soldiers drove the Confederates off, and Lieb's force retired to Milliken's Bend. Lieb prepared for an attack by requesting reinforcements. The 23rd Iowa Infantry arrived from Young's Point, and USN Rear Admiral David D. Porter sent the gunboat Choctaw.
CS Major General John G. Walker and his Texas division left Richmond at 6:00 p.m. on June 6. When they arrived at Oak Grove plantation, Walker sent CS Brigadier General Henry E. McCulloch's Brigade toward Milliken's Bend and CS Brigadier General James M. Hawes's Brigade toward Young's Point. At 3:00 a.m. on June 7 McCulloch's men drove in the Federal pickets and advanced toward the Union left flank. McCulloch's line paused briefly amid volleys from Federal guns, then charged in bloody hand-to-hand combat. During the intense battle the Confederates flanked the Union force and inflicted heavy casualties in a crossfire. As the U.S. troops withdrew behind the levee along the riverbank, the gunboat Choctaw fired on McCulloch. When the gunboat Lexington arrived at 9:00 a.m., he withdrew. In the fierce engagement 35 percent of the black troops were casualties. US Brigadier General Elias S. Dennis described their bravery: "It is impossible for men to show greater gallantry than the Negro Troops in this fight."
After the Federals stopped the Confederates at Milliken's Bend, Vicksburg's only potential source of help was CS General Johnston, with 32,000 men to the northeast. Grant had 70,000 penning Pemberton in Vicksburg. Seven of these divisions, commanded by US General Sherman, guarded the army's rear. After Vicksburg surrendered, Sherman headed after Johnston, who retreated into Jackson and then across the Pearl River.
Estimated Casualties: 652 US, 185 CS
Louisiana: June-September 1863 :
Lafourche Crossing, Louisiana (LA012) , Lafourche Parish, June 20-21, 1863
CS Major General Richard Taylor failed to overwhelm the Union enclaves at Milliken's Bend, Young's Point, and Lake Providence on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River near Vicksburg in early June. He headed south to the Teche country to threaten New Orleans while US Major General Nathaniel P. Banks besieged Port Hudson. Taylor sent CS Colonel James P. Major to raid along Bayou Lafourche, the area west of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. US Brigadier General William H. Emory, commander of the Defenses of New Orleans, assigned US Lieutenant Colonel Albert Stickney to Brashear City and ordered him to stop the Confederates.
Stickney arrived at Lafourche Crossing early on June 20. Federal scouts exchanged fire with the rapidly advancing Confederates while Union reinforcements arrived from Terre Bonne. More troops came up during the night, taking up positions behind earthworks, a levee, and a railroad embankment. The Confederates attacked, but after a few hours00000 of combat they disengaged and retired toward Thibodaux. Despite the defeat Major's raiders continued on to Brashear City.
Estimated Casualties: 49 US, 219 CS
Louisiana: June-September 1863 :
Donaldsonville II, Louisiana (LA013) , Ascension Parish, June 28, 1863
CS General Taylor sent CS Brigadier Generals Alfred Mouton and Thomas Green to attack Brashear City, US General Banks's supply base. On June 23, the 325 Confederates surprised the garrison, captured the town, took 700 prisoners and all of Banks's supplies.
Taylor tried to cut Banks's communications with New Orleans. He ordered three columns to attack the Federals at Donaldsonville, at the confluence of Bayou Lafourche and the Mississippi. CS General Green surrounded Fort Butler after midnight on June 28, but a wide ditch stopped the Confederate advance. The Federal gunboat Princess Royal shelled the attackers, repulsed the Confederate assaults, and inflicted heavy losses. Taylor blocked the Mississippi River to force Banks to lift his siege of Port Hudson, but his action came too late.
Estimated Casualties: 23 US, 301 CS
Vicksburg Campaign and Siege: December 1862-July 1863 :
Goodrich's Landing, Louisiana (LA014) , East Carroll Parish, June 29-30, 1863
As escaped slaves fled to the shelter of the U.S. Army, the Federal government leased plantations in Louisiana on which the freedmen grew cotton. The government also established facilities to train black troops who could be assigned to protect the plantations, releasing veteran white troops to fight. CS Colonel William H. Parsons led a force from Gaines' Landing, Arkansas, to Lake Providence, Louisiana, to capture freedmen and destroy their crops. On June 29 the Confederates prepared to attack the Federal fortification on an Indian mound five miles northwest of Goodrich's Landing. Manned by two companies of the 1st Arkansas Infantry (African Descent), the fortification protected the plantations. When CS Brigadier General James C. Tappan's Brigade arrived, Parsons, rather than attack, demanded an unconditional surrender of the Union force. The white officers agreed to surrender on condition of being afforded their rights as prisoners of war while the blacks were to be surrendered unconditionally. After taking the 113 blacks and 3 white officers prisoner, the Confederates destroyed the surrounding plantations.
While Parsons fought companies of the 1st Kansas Mounted Infantry near Lake Providence on June 30, warships landed US Brigadier General Alfred W. Ellet's Mississippi Marine Brigade at Goodrich's Landing. His force and US Colonel William F. Wood's black units pursued Parsons. Parsons retreated, having disrupted Union operations, destroyed property, and captured men, weapons, and supplies. Confederate raids such as this were destructive but only temporary setbacks to Union control over the region.
Estimated Casualties: 150 US, 6 CS
Louisiana: June-September 1863 :
Kock's Plantation, Louisiana (LA015) , Ascension Parish, July 12-13, 1863
After Port Hudson fell on July 9, the divisions of US Brigadier Generals Godfrey Weitzel and Cuvier Grover were shifted to Donaldsonville by transport to drive off CS General Taylor's batteries, which were blocking the Mississippi River. They marched up Bayou Lafourche, one division on each bank, until confronted by CS General Green. A Union foraging detachment skirmished on July 12 and reached Kock's Plantation (Saint Emma Plantation) about six miles from Fort Butler on July 13. A much smaller Confederate force routed the Federal troops, who eventually fell back to the protection of Fort Butler. The U.S. expedition failed, allowing Taylor to evacuate his captured supplies at Brashear City without interference.
Estimated Casualties: 465 US, 33 CS
Louisiana: June-September 1863 :
Stirling's Plantation, Louisiana(LA016) , Pointe Coupee Parish, September 29, 1863
Despite the Union defeat at Sabine Pass on September 8, US General Banks continued his efforts to occupy strategic locations in Texas. He dispatched troops up Bayou Teche, an alternate route into Texas. His men disembarked on the plains and marched overland. Elements of US Major General Napoleon J. T. Dana's division were sent to garrison Morganza and prevent Confederate troops from operating on the Atchafalaya River. US Lieutenant Colonel J. B. Leake's 100-man detachment was posted at Stirling's Plantation to guard the road to the river.
CS General Mouton decided to attack the Union forces near Fordoche Bridge. CS General Green crossed the river on September 25, and on the morning of September 29 Confederate cavalry skirmished with Federal pickets at the bridge. Green's other troops hit the Union force and took prisoners, but most of the cavalry escaped. Rain slowed Dana's reinforcements, enabling Green to get away. He won the engagement but did not stop Banks.
Estimated Casualties: 515 US, 121 CS
Red River Campaign: March-May 1864 :
Fort DeRussy, Louisiana (LA017) , Avoyelles Parish, March 14, 1864
In early March President Abraham Lincoln named Ulysses S. Grant general-in-chief and promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general. Grant's strategy was to press the Confederacy on all fronts so that its armies could not reinforce each other. His orders for US Major General George Gordon Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, were to go after CS General Robert E. Lee's army. US Major General William Tecumseh Sherman was to break up CS General Joseph E. Johnston's army and damage the Confederacy's war resources in Georgia. Grant brought US Major General Philip H. Sheridan east to lead Meade's cavalry. He ordered the navy to tighten the blockade while US Major General Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James moved up the James, threatened Richmond from the south, and cut the railroad that supplied the capital. US Major General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks was to attack Mobile after driving up the Red River in Louisiana and capturing Shreveport while US Major General Franz Sigel took control of the Shenandoah Valley.
During the second week of March one of the largest amphibious forces ever assembled on the Mississippi River set out from Vicksburg against CS General E. Kirby Smith's Trans-Mississippi Department in Shreveport. The 30,000 men and sixty warships and transports were under the joint command of Banks and USN Rear Admiral David D. Porter. US Major General William B. Franklin's XIII and XIX Corps headed toward Shreveport via Berwick Bay and Bayou Teche; Porter's fleet and 10,000 men of the XVI and XVII Corps from the Army of the Tennessee under US Brigadier General A. J. Smith headed up the Red River. On March 23 another 8,500 men under US Major General Frederick Steele marched from Little Rock to link up with Banks at Shreveport.
Smith's forces disembarked at Simmesport on March 12. Thirty miles farther they approached Fort DeRussy, a fortification partially plated with iron to resist Federal fire from ironclads on the river. On the thirteenth, Smith's troops dispersed a Confederate brigade, clearing the way to the fort. When the Union forces arrived before Fort DeRussy the next day, the 350-man Confederate garrison opened fire. While Porter's gunboats bombarded the fort from the river, Smith sent US Brigadier General Joseph A. Mower's division to take the fort from the rear. Mower's troops scaled the walls that evening and forced the Confederates to surrender. The fall of Fort DeRussy opened the Red River to Alexandria, which the Federals occupied on March 16.
Estimated Casualties: 48 US, 269 CS
Red River Campaign: March-May 1864 :
Mansfield, Louisiana (LA018) , DeSoto Parish, April 8, 1864
Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr.
US Major General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks's main antagonist in the Red River campaign was CS Major General Richard Taylor, the son of former President Zachary Taylor. This was the second time in the war that the two men had opposed each other; the first was in CS Major General Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley campaign, when Banks commanded a Union army and Taylor the Louisiana Brigade. While Banks advanced up the west side of the Red River, USN Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter's sailors raided the countryside, collecting cotton for transport down the river. Taylor fell back toward Shreveport, watching for an opportunity to take on Banks.
Taylor decided that his army had retreated far enough when it reached the little town of Mansfield. The Union army, commanded by Banks, had left the protection of Porter's fleet on the Red River. The Federals had marched away from the river at Natchitoches and moved into northwestern Louisiana along the Old Stage Road (now Route 175), a narrow track through dense pine forests and rolling hills. Once past Mansfield, Banks could put his men on any of three roads leading to Shreveport, and one of those roads would place the Federals back under the protection of their fleet. Taylor saw the strategic advantage in striking the Federals while the terrain forced them into a long line strung out along the Old Stage Road.
Taylor positioned his army about three miles southeast of Mansfield on the Moss Plantation along a road that intersected the Old Stage Road. This road led east toward Blair's Landing and the Red River and west toward the Sabine River. The 8,800 Confederates established their line just inside the woods between a cleared field and the crossroads, with the infantry division of CS Brigadier General Jean Jacques Alfred Alexander Mouton to the east of the main road and the infantry division of CS Major General John George Walker to the west of it. Cavalrymen under the command of CS Brigadier General Thomas Green covered both flanks. Because of the dense forest, Taylor kept most of his artillery in reserve.
Shortly after noon on April 8 cavalrymen under US Brigadier General Albert Lindley Lee, supported by one brigade of US Colonel William Jennings Landrum's Fourth Division, XIII Corps, entered the clearing across from the Confederate positions. The Federal soldiers slowly crossed the field and drove the skirmishers stationed along the crest of Honeycutt Hill back to their main line. As the Union cavalrymen neared the hidden line of Mouton's infantry, they were hit by a heavy volley of musketry. Falling back to the crest of Honeycutt Hill east of the main road, the Federals took a position protected by a rail fence.
At about 3:30 p.m. Landrum's second brigade arrived on the field. The Union line soon formed a ninety-degree angle, one arm stretching south of the Old Stage Road and the other to the east. Lee placed one cavalry brigade on each flank of the infantry forces. Federal artillery batteries were interspersed at various points along the line. In all, about 5,700 Union soldiers were on the battlefield. US Brigadier General Thomas Edward Greenfield Ransom, who led the detachment of the XIII Corps in Banks's army, held command on the field during this first phase of action.
After the two sides had skirmished for a while, Taylor decided to attack the Federals before daylight ended. Mouton's Division opened the assault at about 4:00 p.m. The Confederates suffered heavy casualties, particularly in officers, as they crossed the open space under a heavy fire of musketry and artillery. Soon Walker's men and the cavalry joined in the attack and helped Mouton's depleted ranks rout the Federals. US Brigadier General Robert Alexander Cameron's Third Division of the XIII Corps had formed a second Union line about a half mile behind Ransom's force near Sabine Cross Roads. Placing his 1,300 men on either side of the Old Stage Road, Cameron ordered them forward. Some of the men from the first Union line joined Cameron's. This force held the Confederates back for about an hour, but, outflanked on both sides, they were soon routed. The Confederates overran the Union cavalry wagon train, which was stranded along the narrow road.
About three miles from the first Union line, US Brigadier General William Hemsley Emory's First Division of the XIX Corps formed a third line at Pleasant Grove along the edge of a clearing overlooking Chatman's Bayou and a small creek. Taylor's Confederates struck this position at about 6:00 p.m. and pushed the Federals back slightly from the two streams. During the night Emory's men retreated to Pleasant Hill.
In the battle of Mansfield the Confederates captured twenty artillery pieces, hundreds of small arms, around 150 wagons loaded with supplies, and nearly one thousand horses and mules. The price was about 1,000 men killed and wounded. Included among the dead was Mouton, who fell just as his men were throwing back the first Union line. Federal casualties numbered 113 men killed, 581 wounded, and 1,541 missing.
Estimated Casualties: 2,235 US, 1,000 CS
Red River Campaign: March-May 1864 :
Pleasant Hill, Louisiana (LA019) , DeSoto and Sabine Parishes, April 9, 1864
Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr.
At Pleasant Hill US Major General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks ordered the supply train, the remnants of two cavalry brigades, and the men of the XIII Corps back to Natchitoches. On the field he had about 12,000 men in the two divisions of US Brigadier General Andrew Jackson Smith's XVI Corps, US Brigadier General William Hemsley Emory's division of the XIX Corps, and two cavalry brigades. On the morning of April 9 they took up positions near their camps, which were widely dispersed on a cleared plateau near the town of Pleasant Hill. There were wide gaps between the various Federal brigades. Banks, shaken by the defeat at Mansfield, failed to correct the faulty placement of his troops and failed to exercise command of his army during the battle.
In contrast, CS Major General Richard Taylor planned a masterful strategy on April 9 to keep the Federals demoralized and to force them to continue their retreat from Shreveport. With the addition of two infantry divisions of nearly 4,000 men from Arkansas and Missouri under CS Brigadier General Thomas James Churchill, Taylor had about 12,100 men, a slight numerical superiority over the Yankees. Taking advantage of the Federals' scattered positions, Taylor planned a flanking movement. Churchill's troops would march south of the road that ran from Pleasant Hill to the Sabine River, turn toward the northeast, and crush the Union left flank. CS Major General John George Walker's Division would move between the Mansfield and Sabine River Roads, charge the enemy when it heard Churchill's men making their attack, and connect its lines with Churchill's. Two cavalry brigades would attack the town once the Union flank was crushed, and two other cavalry brigades would then ride toward the north around the Federals' right to cut off their retreat toward Blair's Landing on the Red River.
The Confederates took most of the day to march the nearly twenty miles from Mansfield to Pleasant Hill. Churchill's men had marched about forty-five miles in the past two days, and the remainder of the army was still tired from the battle the afternoon before. Although the advance elements of Taylor's cavalry reached the vicinity of Pleasant Hill at about 9:00 a.m., the head of Churchill's column did not arrive at a point about two miles west of the town until 1:00 p.m. Taylor allowed his men to rest for two hours before moving forward. Things began to go wrong from the first. Confused by the heavily wooded and hilly terrain, Churchill's men did not march far enough past the Sabine River Road and thus could not outflank the Union left. Their attack began at about 5:00 p.m. When Churchill's troops came out of the pine forest, they found themselves facing enemy troops in a deep ravine. The Arkansans and Missourians charged and drove the Federals back up the hill and almost into the town. Another Union force counterattacked. Soon this portion of the Confederate assault was repulsed with heavy losses. Once Churchill's flank movement failed, the other elements of Taylor's plan could not succeed. All of the Confederate assaults bogged down after some initial successes, and a number of the men fell back in confusion. Eventually night put an end to the fighting, and Taylor's men withdrew to look for water. The Federals did not attempt to follow them.
Controversy exists over the winner of the battle of Pleasant Hill. Most historians concede a tactical victory to Banks's men, while a few call the engagement a draw. The Union commander decided to order his army back toward Natchitoches during the night, and this retreat gave Taylor's men a strategic victory. Had Churchill's flank attack succeeded, Taylor would have won a second smashing victory on the battlefield. The Confederate army lost about 1,200 men killed and wounded and 426 captured. Casualties in Banks's army amounted to 150 men killed, 844 wounded, and 375 missing, a total of 1,369.
These two battles blunted Banks's Red River campaign; Mansfield was one of the last major field victories by a Confederate army. Though the Union army outnumbered his force, Taylor had succeeded in striking three enemy detachments and defeating them in detail. He aggressively pursued the Federals, and the Confederate attack at Pleasant Hill caused the Yankees to continue their retreat. Taylor demonstrated generalship of a high order in these battles.
US Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant ordered Banks to send Smith's men to assist in the Atlanta campaign and to move his other troops against Mobile, Alabama, ending Banks's march toward Shreveport and, once his army had reached the safety of the Mississippi River, ending his career as a field commander.
Estimated Casualties: 1,369 US, 1,626 CS
Red River Campaign: March-May 1864 :
Blair's Landing, Louisiana (LA020) , Red River Parish, April 12, 1864
After the battle of Pleasant Hill, US General Banks retired to Grand Ecore and ordered his troops to dig in. USN Admiral Porter's fleet and the detachment of US General Smith's XVII Corps that was still in Louisiana had advanced farther up the Red River. With Banks's defeat, they were isolated and had to fall back. Furthermore, the river level was dropping rapidly. On April 12 CS General Green's forces discovered a squadron of Federal transports and gunboats stalled at Blair's Landing. They dismounted, took cover behind available trees, and fired on the vessels. Hiding behind bales of cotton and sacks of oats, the men on the vessels repelled the attack and killed Green, Taylor's capable cavalry commander and hero of the 1862 battle of Valverde. The Confederates withdrew, and the fleet continued downriver.
Estimated Casualties: 60 US, 57 CS
Red River Campaign: March-May 1864 :
Red River Campaign: March-May 1864 :
Monett's Ferry, Louisiana (LA021) , Natchitoches Parish, April 23, 1864
On April 19 US General Banks began the retreat of his force from Grand Ecore toward Alexandria on the narrow strip of land between the Red and Cane Rivers, his campaign a failure. The Confederates had defeated him in battle, the rapidly dropping Red River threatened to strand USN Admiral Porter's fleet, and US General Grant had ordered Smith's forces from Banks's command to reinforce US Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Atlanta campaign. CS General E. Kirby Smith, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, concluded that Banks in retreat was less of a threat than US General Steele in Arkansas, so he headed toward Arkansas, leaving Taylor with only 5,000 men.
To trap Banks CS General Taylor sent CS Brigadier General Hamilton P. Bee with 1,600 cavalrymen and four batteries of artillery to seize Monett's Ferry, a major crossing over the Cane River. Bee occupied the bluffs overlooking the ferry and was ready when US Brigadier General Richard Arnold, the cavalry commander, approached the crossing. However, instead of hitting Bee head-on, Arnold found a ford upstream. On the morning of April 23 US Brigadier General William H. Emory's division crossed the upstream ford and hit Bee's flank while more Federals demonstrated against his other flank. Bee retreated, and Taylor later removed him from command. The Federals continued their rapid retreat to Alexandria.
By the time Porter reached Alexandria, the river level had fallen so much that his boats were trapped above the double falls. While Confederates sniped at the vessels from the shore, US Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey, the chief engineer to US General Franklin, drew upon his lumbering experience and rescued the fleet. In less than two weeks he built two wing dams stretching from the banks toward the center of the river, with barges filled with rubble sunk to fill the gap between the dams. These dams—and another pair built upriver—raised the water level enough for the fleet to continue downriver. Bailey was promoted to brigadier general.
Estimated Casualties: 200 US, 400 CS
Mansura, Louisiana (LA022) , Avoyelles Parish, May 16, 1864
US General Banks left Alexandria on May 13 after burning most of the town. CS General Taylor arrived before Banks at Mansura, on the Avoyelles prairie a few miles south of Marksville. On May 16, he massed his 5,000 men on either side of the town on the three-mile-wide prairie, so that he controlled three main roads and blocked the Union retreat route. It was a picture-book battle, and, as a Federal soldier described it, "miles of lines and columns ... couriers riding swiftly from wing to wing; everywhere the beautiful silken flags." After a four-hour artillery duel, Banks brought troops forward, and the outnumbered Confederates fell back. The Federals continued on toward the relative safety of the opposite banks of the Atchafalaya River.
Red River Campaign: March-May 1864 :
Yellow Bayou, Louisiana (LA023) , Avoyelles Parish, May 18, 1864
On May 17 US General Banks's retreating troops reached the Atchafalaya River at Simmesport, but the river was too wide to bridge with pontoons. Once again US Colonel Bailey saved the Federals. He bolted all available boats together with timbers and planking, spanning the nearly half-mile river with a temporary bridge.
On May 18, while Bailey constructed his boat-bridge, the Union rear guard under US Brigadier General Joseph A. Mower attacked CS General Taylor's forces at Yellow Bayou to protect the Federals backed up against the river. They drove the Confederates back to their main line. A counterattack forced the Federals to give ground, but the Union troops finally repulsed the Confederates. A brushfire forced both sides to retire. By May 20 Banks had crossed the Atchafalaya River, ending his ill-fated Red River campaign. The Confederates had not only won battles, but they had also prevented US General Smith's 10,000 men from reinforcing US General Sherman. Banks's failures prevented the Federals from moving against Mobile, enabling the Confederacy to transfer 15,000 reinforcements from Mississippi and Alabama to defend northwest Georgia.
Estimated Casualties: 360 US, 500 CS