LA FOURCHE.
On the 22d of August Paine was assigned to the command of what was
called the "reserve brigade" of a division under Phelps. The
brigade was composed of the 4th Wisconsin, 21st Indiana, and 14th
Maine, with Brown's battery attached to the Indiana regiment.
But this was not to last, for the tension that had long existed
between Phelps and the department commander, on the subject of the
treatment of the negroes, as well as on the question of arming
and employing them, finally resulted in Phelps's resignation on
the 21st of August. On the 13th of September he was succeeded by
Brigadier-General Thomas W. Sherman, himself recently relieved
from command of the Department of the South, partly, perhaps, in
consequence of differences of opinion of a like character.
On the 29th of September the division, then known as Sherman's,
was reorganized, and Paine took command of the 1st brigade, composed
of the 4th Wisconsin, 21st Indiana, and 8th New Hampshire regiments
with the 1st and 2d Vermont batteries and Brown's guns of the 21st
Indiana. Paine's command also included Camp Parapet. These lines
had been originally laid out by the Confederates for the defence
of New Orleans against an attack by land from the north; as, for
example, by a force approaching through Lake Pontchartrain and Pass
Manchac. They were now put in thorough order, and the Indianians,
who had received some artillery instruction during their term of
service at Fort McHenry, completed the foundation for the future
service as heavy artillerists by going back to the big guns. In
October and November the 8th New Hampshire and 21st Indiana were
transferred to Weitzel's brigade and were replaced in Paine's by
the 2d Louisiana and temporarily by the 12th Maine.
The official reports covering this period afford several strong
hints of a Confederate plan for the recapture of New Orleans. With
this object, apparently, Richard Taylor, a prominent and wealthy
Louisianian, closely allied to Jefferson Davis by his first marriage
with the daughter of Zachary Taylor, was made a major-general in
the Confederate army, and on the 1st of August was assigned to
command the Confederate forces in Western Louisiana. It seems
likely that the troops of Van Dorn's department, as well as those
at Mobile, were expected to take part.
On the 8th of August orders were issued by the War Department
transferring the district of West Florida to the Department of the
Gulf. West Florida meant Pensacola. Fort Pickens, on the sands
of Santa Rosa, commanding the entrance to the splendid harbor, owed
to the loyalty of a few staunch officers of the army and the navy
the proud distinction of being the one spot between the Chesapeake
and the Rio Grande over which, in spite of all hostile attempts,
the ensign of the nation had never ceased to float; for the works
at Key West and the Dry Tortugas, though likewise held, were never
menaced. Though Bragg early gathered a large force for the capture
of the fort, the only serious attempt, made in the dawn of the 9th
of October, 1861, was repulsed with a loss to the Confederates of
87, to the Union troops of 61. Of these, the 6th New York had 9
killed, 7 wounded, 11 missing--in all, 27. In December the 75th
New York came down from the North to reinforce the defenders.
Finally, after learning the fate of New Orleans, Bragg evacuated
Pensacola, and burned his surplus stores, and on the 10th of May,
1862, Porter, seeing from the passes the glare of the flames, ran
over and anchored in the bay. The advantage thus gained was held
to the end.
This transfer gave Butler two strong infantry regiments, as well
as several fine batteries and companies of the regular artillery,
but at the same time correspondingly increased the territory he
had to guard, already far too extensive and too widely scattered
for the small force at his disposal.
Toward the end of September Lieutenant Godfrey Weitzel, of the
engineers, having been made a brigadier-general on Butler's
recommendation, a promotion more than usually justified by service
and talent, a brigade was formed for him called the Reserve Brigade,
and consisting of the 12th and 13th Connecticut, 75th New York,
and 8th New Hampshire, Carruth's 6th Massachusetts battery, Thompson's
1st Maine battery, Perkins's Troop C of the Massachusetts cavalry,
and three troops of Louisiana cavalry under Williamson. From that
time, through all the changes, which were many and frequent,
Weitzel's brigade changed less than any thing else, and its history
may almost be said to be the military history of the Department.
Taylor, with his accustomed energy and enthusiasm, had collected
and organized a force, primarily for the defence of the La Fourche
country and the Teche, ultimately for the offensive operations
already planned. Butler at once committed to Weitzel the preparations
for dislodging Taylor and occupying La Fourche. This object was
important, not only to secure the defence of New Orleans, but
because the territory to be occupied comprised or controlled the
fertile region between the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya. The
country lies low and flat, and is intersected by numerous navigable
bayous, with but narrow roadways along their banks and elsewhere
none. Without naval assistance, the operation would have been
difficult, if not impossible; and the navy had in Louisiana no
gunboats of a draught light enough for the service. With the funds
of the army Butler caused four light gunboats, the _Estrella,
Calhoun, Kinsman,_ and _Diana,_ to be quietly built and equipped,
the navy furnishing the officers and the crews. Under Commander
McKean Buchanan they were then sent by the gulf to Berwick Bay.
When he was ready, Weitzel took transports, under convoy of the
_Kineo, Sciota, Katahdin,_ and _Itasca_, landed below Donaldsonville,
entered the town, and on the 27th of October moved on Thibodeaux,
the heart of the district. At Georgia Landing, about two miles
above Labadieville, he encountered the Confederates under Mouton,
consisting of the 18th and 33d Louisiana, the Crescent and Terre
Bonne regiments, with Ralston's and Semmes's batteries and the 2d
Louisiana cavalry, in all reported by Mouton as 1,392 strong. They
had taken up a defensive position on both sides of the bayou.
Along these bayous the standing room is for the most part narrow;
and as the land, although low, is in general heavily wooded and
crossed by many ditches of considerable depth, the country affords
defensive positions at once stronger and more numerous than are to
be found in most flat regions. Small bodies of troops, familiar
with the topography, have also this further advantage, that there
are few points from which their position and numbers can be easily
made out.
After a short but spirited engagement Mouton's force was compelled
to retreat. Weitzel pursued for about four miles.
Mouton then called in his outlying detachments, including the La
Fourche regiment, 500 strong, 300 men of the 33d Louisiana, and
the regiments of Saint Charles and St. John Baptist, burned the
railway station of Terre Bonne and the bridges at Thibodeaux, La
Fourche Crossing, Terre Bonne, Des Allemands, and Bayou Boeuf, and
evacuated the district. By the 30th, every thing was safely across
Berwick Bay. For this escape, he was indebted to an opportune gale
that compelled Buchanan's gunboats to lie to in Caillou Bay on
their way to Berwick Bay, to cut off the retreat. Mouton's report
accounts for 5 killed, 8 wounded, and 186 missing; in all 199.
Among the killed was Colonel G. P. McPheeters of the Crescent
regiment.
Weitzel followed to Thibodeaux, and went into camp beyond the town.
He claims to have taken 208 prisoners and one gun, and states his
own losses as 18 killed, and 74 wounded, agreeing with the nominal
lists, which also contain the names of 5 missing, thus bringing
the total casualties to 97.
Arriving off Brashear a day too late, Buchanan was partly consoled
by capturing the Confederate gunboat _Seger_. On the 4th and 5th
of November he made a reconnoissance fourteen miles up the Teche
with his own boat, the _Calhoun_, and the _Estrella, Kinsman, Saint
Mary's_, and _Diana_, and meeting a portion of Mouton's forces and
the Confederate gunboat _J. A. Cotton_, received and inflicted some
damage and slight losses, yet with no material result.
Simultaneously with Weitzel's movement on La Fourche, Butler pushed
the 8th Vermont and the newly organized 1st Louisiana Native Guards
forward from Algiers along the Opelousas Railway, to act in
conjunction with Weitzel and to open the railway as they advanced.
Weitzel had already turned the enemy out of his position, but the
task committed to Thomas was slow and hard, for all the bridges
and many culverts had to be rebuilt, and from long disuse of the
line the rank grass, that in Louisiana springs up so freely in
every untrodden spot above water, had grown so tall and thick and
strongly matted that the troops had to pull it up by the roots
before the locomotive could pass.
So ended operations in Louisiana for the year. Until the following
spring, Taylor continued to occupy the Teche region, while Weitzel
rested quietly in La Fourche, with his headquarters at Thibodeaux
and his troops so disposed as to cover and hold the country without
losing touch. On the 9th of November, the whole of Louisiana lying
west of the Mississippi, except the delta parishes of Plaquemine
and Terre Bonne, was constituted a military district to be known
as the District of La Fourche, and Weitzel was assigned to the
command.
Meanwhile General Butler, with the consent of the War Department,
had raised, organized, and equipped, in the neighborhood of New
Orleans, two good regiments of Louisianans, the 1st Louisiana, Colonel
Richard E. Holcomb, and the 2d Louisiana, Colonel Charles J. Paine,
both regiments admirably commanded and well officered; three
excellent troops of Louisiana cavalry, under fine leaders, Captains
Henry F. Williamson, Richard Barrett, and J. F. Godfrey; and beside
these white troops, three regiments of negroes, designated as the
1st, 2d, and 3d Louisiana Native Guards. This was the name originally
employed by Governor Moore early in 1861, to describe an organization
of the free men of color of New Orleans enrolled for the defence
of the city against the expected attack by the forces of the Union.
This action was taken by Butler of his own motion. It was never
formally approved by the government, but it was not interfered
with. These three regiments were the first negro troops mustered
into the service of the United States. At least one of them, the
1st, was largely made up of men of that peculiar and exclusive
caste known to the laws of slavery as the free men of color of
Louisiana. All the field and staff officers were white men, mainly
taken from the rolls of the troops already in service; but at first
all the company officers were negroes. As this was the first
experiment, it was perhaps, in the state of feeling then prevailing,
inevitable, yet not the less to be regretted, that the white officers
were, with some notable exceptions, inferior men. Fortunately,
however, courts-martial and examining boards made their career for
the most part a short one. As for the colored officers of the
line, early in 1863 they were nearly all disqualified on the most
rudimentary examination, and then the rest resigned. After that,
the government having determined to raise a large force of negro
troops, it became the settled policy to grant commissions as officers
to none but white men.
The 1st and 2d regiments were sent into the district of La Fourche
to guard the railway.
Then, between Butler and Weitzel, in spite of confidence on the
one hand and respect and affection on the other, began the usual
controversy about arming the negro. To one unacquainted with the
history of this question and of those times it must seem strange
indeed to read the emphatic words in which a soldier so loyal and,
in the best sense, so subordinate as Weitzel, declared his
unwillingness to command these troops, and to reflect that in a
little more than two years he was destined to accept with alacrity
the command of a whole army corps of black men, and at last to ride
in triumph at their head into the very capital of the Confederacy.
With the exception of the levies raised by its commander, the
Department of the Gulf had so far received no access of strength
from any quarter. From the North had come hardly a recruit. In
the intense heat and among the poisonous swamps the effective
strength melted away day by day. Thus the numbers present fell
3,795 during the month of July; in October, when the sickly season
had done its worst, the wastage reached a total of 5,390. At the
time of the battle of Baton Rouge, Butler's effective force can
hardly have exceeded 7,000. When his strength was the greatest it
probably did not exceed, if indeed it reached, the number of 13,000
effective. The condition of affairs was therefore such that Butler
found himself with an army barely sufficient for the secure defence
of the vast territory committed to his care, and for any offensive
operation absolutely powerless. To hold what had been gained it
was practically necessary to sit still; and to sit still then, as
always in all wars, was to invite attack.
These things Butler did not fail to represent to the government,
and to repeat. At last, about the middle of November, he received
a few encouraging words from Halleck, dated the 3d of that month,
in which he was assured that the "delay in sending reinforcements
has not been the fault of the War Department. It is hoped that
some will be ready to start as soon as the November elections are
over. Brigadier-generals will be sent with these reinforcements."
With them was to be a major-general, the new commander of the
department; but this Halleck did not say.