While Federal troops labored to build the dam, Taylor’s Confederate army
was not idle. Some rebels continued to harass the outposts around
Alexandria, while others destroyed bridges and blocked roads in an
attempt to entrap the Union forces. Federal boats already below the
rapids were constantly ambushed along the lower Red River as they
attempted to supply the army. In fact, the Confederate soldiers were
able to cut off all navigation on the river for a while, isolating the
Yankees.
On May 13, with all the gunboats now safely below the rapids, Union
forces moved out of Alexandria. The Union soldiers left with mixed
feelings. They had been beaten in battle, harassed, and almost
completely destroyed. They were exhausted. Still, they had accomplished
a magnificent feat in building the dam and rescuing the fleet, and some
had even made friends among the townsfolk.
[Illustration: Admiral Porter’s fleet on the Red River. From
_Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War_, March 1864. Courtesy
of the Library of Congress.]
But for the local population this was a critical time. Rumors spread
that the town would be torched when the army left. Banks ordered a
detail of 500 men to be left behind to protect the town from arson. But
fires quickly broke out as soon as the main army was out of town. It is
unclear who started the fires, as some accounts describe soldiers
looting and setting fires, while other accounts note that army guards
shot looters. Probably, both Union troops and local looters were
involved. One detachment, the 92nd Colored Infantry who also helped
build the dams, was known to have fought a fire for many hours, until
the building was doomed and the troops were forced to continue their
retreat. One Yankee soldier described the scene:
[Illustration: Alexandria, May 1864. Courtesy of the Louisiana State
Library.]
Cows ran bellowing through the streets. Chickens flew out from yards
and fell in the streets with their feathers scorching them.... Crowds
of people, men, women, children and soldiers, were running with all
they could carry, when the heat would become unbearable and dropping
all, they would flee for their lives, leaving everything but their
bodies to burn. Over the levee the sights and sounds were harrowing.
Thousands of people, mostly women, children and old men, were wringing
their hands as they stood by the little piles of what was left of all
their worldly possessions (Van Alstyne 1910:320-321).
As the expedition retreated south down the Red River, Confederate
cavalry did what it could to badger the Union forces at every
opportunity. However, no matter how courageously the men fought, the
rebel army was too small to seriously oppose the retreat of the entire
expedition. At Mansura, Louisiana, Taylor attempted to stand against the
Federals, but after a four-hour artillery duel, he had to withdraw.
Though the campaign seemed about at an end, Banks found that he had to
call on the services of Lieutenant Colonel Bailey once more. At the
Atchafalaya River, Bailey directed the construction of a bridge which he
promptly fashioned out of transport vessels. Around 24 transports were
placed across the river and held together with large timbers. Then, long
planks were laid across the prows of the transports to form a temporary
bridge. Banks’s army was able to cross the river quickly and safely and
continue the retreat south to Baton Rouge. By that time, every soldier
knew and appreciated the frontier engineer from Wisconsin.