LAST DAYS IN LOUISIANA.
On the 13th of May Banks marched from Alexandria on Simmesport,
Lawler leading the infantry column, Emory next, and A. J. Smith's
divisions of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Corps bringing up the
rear. As far as Fort De Russy the march followed the bank of the
river, with the object of covering the withdrawal of the fleet of
gunboats and transports against any possible molestation. Steele's
cavalry division hung upon and harassed the rear, Polignac, Major,
and Bagby hovered in front and on the flanks, while Harrison followed
on the north bank of the Red River, but no serious attempt was made
to obstruct the movement. On the afternoon of the 15th the
Confederates were seen in force in front of the town of Marksville,
but were soon driven off and retired rapidly through the town.
On the morning of the 16th of May an event took place, described
by all who saw it as the finest military spectacle they ever
witnessed. On the wide and rolling prairie of Avoyelles, otherwise
known as the Plains of Mansura, the Confederates stood for the last
time across the line of march of the retreating army. As battery
after battery went into action and the cavalry skirmishers became
briskly engaged, it seemed as if a pitched battle were imminent.
The infantry rapidly formed line of battle, Mower on the right,
Kilby Smith next, Emory in the centre, Lawler on the left, the main
body of Arnold's cavalry in column on the flank. Save where here
and there the light smoke from the artillery hindered the view,
the whole lines of both armies were in plain sight of every man in
either, but the disparity in numbers was too great to justify Taylor
in making more than a handsome show of resistance on a field like
this, where defeat was certain, and destruction must have followed
close upon defeat; and so when our lines were advanced he prudently
withdrew. Banks's losses were small, but Lieutenant Haskin's
horse-battery F, 1st U. S., being unavoidably exposed in spite of its
skilful handling, to a hot enfilade fire of the Confederate artillery,
to cover their flank movement in retreat, suffered rather severely.
In the afternoon the troops halted for a while on the banks of a
little stream to enjoy the first fresh, clear water they had so
much as seen for many weeks. At the sight the men broke into
cheers, and almost with one accord rushed eagerly to the banks of
the rivulet. That night the army bivouacked eight miles from the
Atchafalaya, and early the next morning, the 17th of May, marched
down to the river at Simmesport, where the transports and the
gunboats, having arrived two days earlier, lay waiting. Near
Moreauville on the 17th the rear-guard of cavalry was sharply
attacked by Wharton; at the same time Debray, lying in ambush with
two regiments and a battery, opened fire on the flank of the moving
column. While this was going on the two other regiments of Debray
made a dash on the wagon-train near the crossing of Yellow Bayou,
and threw it into some momentary confusion. Neither of these
attacks were serious, and all were easily thrown off.
The next day, the 18th, A. J. Smith's command was in position near
Yellow Bayou to cover the crossing of the Atchafalaya, and he was
himself at the landing at Simmesport, in the act of completing his
arrangements for crossing, when Taylor suddenly attacked with his
whole force. Mower, who commanded in Smith's absence, advanced
his lines as soon as he found his skirmishers coming in, and thus
brought on one of the sharpest engagements of the campaign. With
equal judgment, skill, and daring, Mower finally drove the Confederates
off the field in confusion and with heavy loss, and so brought to
a brilliant close the part borne by the gallant soldiers of the
Army of the Tennessee in their trying service in Louisiana. Mower's
loss was 38 killed, 226 wounded, and 3 missing, in all 267. Taylor
reports his loss as about 500, including 30 killed, 50 severely
wounded, and about 100 prisoners from Polignac's division. The
Confederate returns account for 452 killed and wounded.
At Simmesport the skill and readiness of Bailey were once more put
to good use in improvising a bridge of steamboats across the
Atchafalaya. In his report, Banks speaks of this as the first
attempt of the kind, probably forgetting, since it did not fall
under his personal observation, that when the army moved on Port
Hudson the year before, the last of the troops and trains crossed
the river at the same place in substantially the same way. However,
the Atchafalaya was then low: it was now swollen to a width of six
hundred or seven hundred yards by the back water from the Mississippi,
and thus the floating bridge, which the year before was made by
lashing together not more than nine boats, with their gangways in
line, connected by means of the gangplanks and rough boards, now
required twenty-two boats to close the gap. Over this bridge, on
the 19th of May, the troops took up their march in retreat, and so
brought the disastrous campaign of the Red River to an end just a
year after they had begun, in the same way and on the same spot,
the triumphant campaign of Port Hudson.
On the 20th A. J. Smith crossed, the bridge was broken up, and in
the evening the whole army marched for the Mississippi. On the
21st, at Red River landing, the Nineteenth Corps bade farewell to
its brave comrades of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth.
A. J. Smith landed at Vicksburg on the 23d of May too late for the
part assigned him in the spring campaign of Sherman's army, and
the operations on the Mississippi being now reduced to the defensive,
he remained on the banks of the river until called on to repulse
Price's invasion of Missouri. Then, having handsomely performed
his share of this service, he joined Thomas just in time to take
part in the decisive battle of Nashville.
At Simmesport Banks was met by Canby, who on the 11th of May, at
Cairo or on the way thence to Memphis, had assumed command of the
new-made Military Division of West Mississippi, in virtue of orders
from Washington, dated the 7th. The President still refused to
yield to Grant's repeated requests that Banks might be altogether
relieved from his command, nor did Grant longer persist in this;
accordingly Banks remained the titular commander of the Department
of the Gulf, with a junior officer present as his immediate superior
and his next subordinate in actual command of his troops.
The Thirteenth and Nineteenth Corps, the cavalry, and the trains
continued the march, under Emory, and on the 22d of May went into
camp at Morganza.
From the Arkansas to the Gulf, from the Atchafalaya to the Rio
Grande there was no longer a Union soldier, save the insignificant
garrison kept at Brownsville to preserve the semblance of that
foothold in Texas for the sake of which so much blood and treasure
had been spilled into this sink of shame.
When Steele's retreat to Little Rock had put an end to all hopes
of a successful pursuit, Kirby Smith faced about and set Walker in
rapid motion toward Alexandria with Churchill closely following.
A day or two after Banks had left the place Walker arrived at
Alexandria, too late to do anything more in Louisiana.
Taylor quarrelled bitterly with Kirby Smith, who ended by ordering
him to turn over his command to Walker. Leaving a small force to
hold the country and to observe and annoy the Union army of occupation
in Louisiana, Kirby Smith then gathered his forces, and passing by
Steele's right flank, invaded Missouri.
After arriving at Morganza, Emory, by Canby's orders, put his command
in good condition for defence or for a movement in any direction
by sending to other stations all the troops except the Nineteenth
Corps and the First division, Lawler's, of the Thirteenth Corps,
as well as all the extra animals, wagons, and baggage of the army.
For the sedentary defensive, the position at Morganza had many
advantages, but except that good water for all purposes was to be
had in plenty for the trouble of crossing the levee, the situation
was perhaps the most unfortunate in which the corps was ever
encamped. The heat was oppressive and daily growing more unbearable.
The rude shelters of bushes and leaves, cut fresh from the neighboring
thicket and often renewed, gave little protection; the levee and
the dense undergrowth kept off the breeze; and such was the state
of the soil that when it was not a cloud of light and suffocating
dust, it was a sea of fat black mud. The sickly season was close
at hand, the field and general hospitals were filled, and the deaths
were many. The mosquitoes were at their worst; but worse than all
were the six weeks of absolute idleness, broken only by an occasional
alarm or two, such as led to the brief expedition of Grover's
division to Tunica and Natchez.
At first Canby intended to use the Nineteenth Corps as a sort of
marine patrol or coast-guard, with its trains and artillery and
cavalry reduced to the lowest point, and the main body of the
infantry kept always ready to embark on a fleet of transports
specially assigned for the service and to go quickly to any point
up or down the Mississippi or the adjacent waters that might be
menaced or attacked by the enemy. The orders for the organization
and equipment of the corps in this manner form a model of forethought
and of minute attention to detail, yet as events turned out, they
were never put in practice.
Toward the end of June the corps underwent at the hands of Canby
the last of its many reorganizations.(1) The First and Second
divisions were left substantially as they had been during the
campaign just ended, but the Thirteenth Corps being broken up,(2)
seventeen of its best regiments were taken to form for the Nineteenth
Corps a new Third division, under Lawler. Emory, who was suffering
from the effects of the climate and the hardships of the campaign,
had just applied for leave of absence, supposing that all idea of
a movement during the summer was at an end, and Canby, having
granted this, assigned Reynolds to command the corps, to which, in
truth, his rank and record entitled him, and gave the First division,
Emory's own, to Roberts, a total stranger. Upon this, and learning
of the movement about to be made, Emory at once threw up his leave
of absence, and Reynolds, noting with the eye of a soldier the deep
and widespread disappointment among the officers and men of the
corps, magnanimously persuaded Canby to leave the command of the
Nineteenth Army Corps, for the time being, to Emory, while Reynolds
himself commanded the forces at Morganza. The brigades of the First
division were commanded by Beal, McMillan, and Currie. Grover kept
the Second division with Birge, Molineux, and Sharpe as brigade
commanders, and afterward a fourth brigade was added, made up of
four regiments from the disbanded Thirteenth Corps, under Colonel
David Shunk of the 8th Indiana, and comprising, in addition to his
own regiment, the 24th and 28th Iowa, and the 18th Indiana. At
this later period also the 1st Louisiana was taken from Molineux's
brigade to remain in the Gulf, and its place was filled by the 11th
Indiana and the 22d Iowa. Lawler's new Third division had Lee,
Cameron, and Colonel F. W. Moore of the 83d Ohio for brigade
commanders. This was a splendid division, on both sides congenial;
unfortunately it was not destined to see service with the corps.
Three great reviews broke the torrid monotony of Morganza. On the
11th of June Emory reviewed the corps in a tropical torrent, which
suddenly descending drenched every man to the skin and reduced the
field music to discord, without interrupting the ceremony. On the
14th the troops again passed in review before Sickles, who had been
sent to Louisiana on a tour of inspection, and finally on the 25th
Reynolds reviewed the forces at Morganza on taking the command.
Grant's orders to Canby were the same as those he had given to
Banks, to go against Mobile.
This was indeed an integral and important, though strictly subordinate,
part of the comprehensive plan adopted by the lieutenant-general
for the spring campaign. Besides distracting the attention of the
Confederates, and either drawing off a large part of their forces
from Sherman's front or else causing them to give up Mobile without
a struggle, the control of the Alabama River would give Sherman a
secure base of supplies and a safe line of retreat in any contingency,
while the occupation of a line from Atlanta to Mobile would, as
Grant remarked, "once more split the Confederacy in twain."
But while in Louisiana the troops stood still, awaiting the full
completion of Canby's exhaustive preparations, elsewhere events
were marching with great rapidity. On the 3d of June Grant's
campaign from the Rappahannock to the James came to an end in the
bloody repulse of Cold Harbor, with the loss of 12,737 officers
and men. On the 14th he crossed the James and sat down before
Petersburg. In the six weeks that had passed since the Army of
the Potomac made its way into the Wilderness, Grant had lost from
the ranks of the two armies of the Potomac and the James nearly as
many men as Lee had in the Army of Northern Virginia.(3)
While he was himself directing the movement of Meade and Butler
against Richmond and Petersburg, Grant ordered Hunter, who commanded
in the Shenandoah Valley, to march by Charlottesville on Lynchburg,
and sent Sheridan, with the cavalry on a great raid to Charlottesville
to meet Hunter; but Lee sent Early to intercept the movement, and
Early, moving with the speed and promptness to which Jackson's old
corps was well used, got to Lynchburg in time to head Hunter off.
Then Hunter, rightly deeming his position precarious, instead of
retreating down the valley, made his escape across the mountains
into West Virginia. This left the gates of the great valley
thoroughfare wide open for Early, who, instantly marching north,
once more invaded Maryland, harried Pennsylvania, and menaced
Washington.
It was at this crisis, when nothing was being accomplished in
Louisiana and everything was happening in Virginia, that Grant
ordered Canby to put off his designs on Mobile and to send the
Nineteenth Corps with all speed to Hampton Roads.(4) Canby understood
this to mean the First and Second divisions, and placed Emory in
command of this detachment. On the 30th of June the two divisions
began moving down the river to Algiers, and on the 3d of July the
advance steamed out of the river into the Gulf of Mexico with sealed
orders. When the steamer _Crescent_, which led the way, carrying
the 153d New York and four companies of the 114th, had dropped her
pilot outside of the passes, Davis broke the seal and for the first
time learned his destination. Within a few days the remainder of
the First division followed, without Roberts, Emory accompanied by
the headquarters of the expedition going on the _Mississippi_ on
the 5th of July, with the 30th Massachusetts, the 90th New York,
and the 116th New York, but transferring himself at the Southwest
Pass to the _Creole_, in his impatience at finding the _Mississippi_
aground and his anxiety to come up with the advance of his troops.
The _Crescent_ was the first to arrive before Fortress Monroe.
The last regiment of the Third brigade sailed on the 11th. Grover's
division began its embarkation about the 10th and finished about
the 20th.
In this movement some of the best regiments of the corps were left
behind, as well as all the cavalry and the whole of the magnificent
park of field artillery. Among the troops thus cut off were the
110th New York, the 161st New York, the 7th Vermont, the 6th
Michigan, the 4th Wisconsin, the 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery, the
1st Louisiana, and the 2d Louisiana Mounted Infantry. Reynolds
with the corps headquarters and the new Third division remained in
Louisiana. Since this came from the old Thirteenth Corps, was
afterward incorporated in the new Thirteenth Corps, formed for the
siege of Mobile, never saw service in the Nineteenth Corps and
nominally belonged to it but a few days, and since the detachment
now sent north was presently constituted the Nineteenth Corps, the
title of the corps will hereafter be used in this narrative when
speaking of the services of the First and Second divisions.
On the 14th of June Major William H. Sentell, of the 160th New
York, was detailed by Emory as acting assistant inspector-general
of the corps, and Captain Henry C. Inwood, of the 165th New York,(5)
as provost marshal.
To regret leaving the lowlands of Louisiana at the sickly season,
the poisonous swamps, the filthy water, the overpowering heat, and
the intolerable mosquitoes, was impossible; yet there can have been
no man in all that host that did not feel, as the light, cool
breezes of the Gulf fanned his brow, a swelling of the heart and
a tightness of the throat at the thought of all that he had seen
and suffered, and the remembrance of the many thousands of his less
fortunate comrades who had succumbed to the dangers and trials on
which he himself was now turning his back for the last time.
(1) Begun about June 16th. The final orders are dated June 27th.
(2) By orders from Washington, issued at Canby's request, June 11th.
(3) From the 5th of May to the 15th of June Meade's losses were
51,908, and Butler's 9,234, together 61,142. The best estimates
give 61,000 to 64,000 as Lee's strength at the Wilderness, or 78,400
from the Rappahannock to the James,--"Century War Book," vol. iv.,
pp. 182-187.
(4) The first suggestion seems to have come from Butler to Stanton,
May 29th, Weitzel concurring. Grant disapproved this in a telegram
dated 3 P.M., June 3d: the second assault had been made that morning.
The movement across the James for the surprise and seizure of
Petersburg came to a stand-still on the 18th. On the 23d Grant
made the request and the orders were issued the next day.
(5) In the official records wrongly printed as the 160th.