These fortifications withstood every attack of Banks' powerful army from
May 24 to July 9, 1863. Like Vicksburg, Port Hudson could be reduced only
by a weary siege. These pictures, taken within the fortifications, show in
the distance the ground over which the investing army approached to the
two unsuccessful grand assaults they made upon the Confederate defenders.
The strength of the works is apparent. A continuous line of parapet,
equally strong, had been thrown up for the defense of Port Hudson,
surrounding the town for a distance of three miles and more, each end
terminating on the riverbank. Four powerful forts were located at the
salients, and the line throughout was defended by thirty pieces of field
artillery. Brigadier-General Beall, who commanded the post in 1862,
constructed these works. Major-General Frank Gardner succeeded him in
command at the close of the year.
[Illustration: THE WELL-DEFENDED WORKS]
[Illustration: CONFEDERATE FORTIFICATIONS BEFORE PORT HUDSON]
Gardner was behind these defenses with a garrison of about seven thousand
when Banks approached Port Hudson for the second time on May 24th. Gardner
was under orders to evacuate the place and join his force to that of
Johnston at Jackson, Mississippi, but the courier who brought the order
arrived at the very hour when Banks began to bottle up the Confederates.
On the morning of May 25th Banks drove in the Confederate skirmishers and
outposts and, with an army of thirty thousand, invested the fortifications
from the eastward. At 10 A.M., after an artillery duel of more than four
hours, the Federals advanced to the assault of the works. Fighting in a
dense forest of magnolias, amid thick undergrowth and among ravines choked
with felled timber, the progress of the troops was too slow for a telling
attack. The battle has been described as "a gigantic bushwhack." The
Federals at the center reached the ditch in front of the Confederate works
but were driven off. At nightfall the attempt was abandoned. It had cost
Banks nearly two thousand men.
[Illustration: THE GUN THAT FOOLED THE FEDERALS]
A "Quaker gun" that was mounted by the Confederates in the fortifications
on the bluff at the river-front before Port Hudson. This gun was hewn out
of a pine log and mounted on a carriage, and a black ring was painted
around the end facing the river. Throughout the siege it was mistaken by
the Federals for a piece of real ordnance. To such devices as this the
beleaguered garrison was compelled constantly to resort in order to
impress the superior forces investing Port Hudson with the idea that the
position they sought to capture was formidably defended. The ruse was
effective. Port Hudson was not again attacked from the river after the
passing of Farragut's two ships.
[Illustration: WITHIN "THE CITADEL"