COMPANIES C AND H ON DETACHED SERVICE AT CAMP PARAPET.
Special Orders No. 16, issued from headquarters Defences of New
Orleans, January 15th, 1863, detailed Companies C and H for duty in
the Department engineer service. The two companies made a skeleton
battalion, under command of Senior-Captain Leonard, who, after
reporting to Major D. C. Houston, chief-engineer Nineteenth Army
Corps, for instructions, on the seventeenth marched them to Camp
Parapet, three miles up river, with their camp equipage, and pitched
tents upon a level piece of low, muddy land, formerly used as a burial
place for soldiers. This Camp Parapet was so called because a large
number of troops were in camp near earthworks thrown up a few miles
above Carrollton. These works then consisted of a parapet and other
fortifications on the east bank, between the river, the swamps and Lake
Ponchartrain, with an abandoned Confederate redoubt upon the west bank,
re-named Fort Banks.
The camp was moved to a fig grove January 21st, tents provided with
floors, and here the battalion remained until relieved from detached
duty, without suffering any inconvenience except, when a portion of
camp was drowned out, February 15th, by a terrible thunder shower
that forced men to seek shelter in barns not far away. Regular Sunday
and monthly inspections were maintained, with an occasional drill.
The inspections were thorough, as they should always be, and more
drills would have been ordered had the details been less heavy. The
companies suffered from a lack of commissioned officers. In Company C,
Captain Leonard, as battalion commander, occupied the best quarters
obtainable in the vicinity, and exercised command as such. Lieutenant
White, absent on detached duty a greater part of the time, left but one
company officer on duty, Lieutenant Sanderson. In Company H, Captain
Bailey took things easy until placed in arrest April 16th, leaving
Lieutenant Phillips the only company officer on duty; Lieutenant Gould
was on detached service as an acting quartermaster.
There was little sickness among the men in this detachment during their
stay at the Parapet. The position of their camp was more favorable
for health than others at the post, with the additional good feature
of being kept scrupulously neat; the prettiest camp at the post. On
the extreme right of the earthworks, near the Jackson Railroad track,
ground was so unhealthy it was nicknamed “Camp Death.” Here the One
Hundred and Fifty-Sixth New York suffered severely from sickness. This
ground, near the railroad, was also a risky place for the troops there
stationed on account of shells exploding in the neighborhood, fired
from the gunboats when practising to obtain a range of this road. All
shells had time fuses and would explode high in air, but fragments
occasionally fell where not wanted. On one occasion, March 31st, a
shell from the _Portsmouth_ went over the One Hundred and Fifty-Sixth
New York camp to explode nearly half a mile away, as every one thought,
yet a large fragment was flung into camp and took off the head of a
Zouave, who did not dream his death was so near. At another time a
shell in passing over Companies C and H camp prematurely exploded
overhead; pieces were flung into camp, fortunately without injury to
anybody.
Among the few inhabitants who lived near Camp Parapet must have been
some treacherous, be-deviled secessionists. Ammunition was occasionally
stolen, the empty boxes afterwards found in places where they had been
thrown. An attempt was once made by them to cause a break in the levee
above the fortifications, by removing pickets placed to keep the levee
embankment from giving way. This attempt was discovered before any
damage resulted, and guards were afterward placed upon the river banks
to prevent other attempts of a like nature.
Private Charles E. Warren, who had been an apothecary clerk in Boston,
was detailed by Captain Leonard to act as medical-officer for the two
companies. Warren did not take the position from any love for the
medical profession, but did so to advance his personal interest and
comfort. He was a social, jolly, good fellow, with a certain amount
of acquired knowledge how to use medicines, but had no diploma as a
graduate from any medical institute authorizing him to assume the
practice of medicine.
Other details from the enlisted men were made to serve in various
capacities, viz.:
Sergeant Frederick C. Blanchard, Company C, acting adjutant.
Sergeant Edward P. Fiske, Company C, acting sergeant-major.
Sergeant Edward L. Jones, Company H, acting commissary-sergeant.
Sergeant Dennis A. O’Brien, Company H, wagon-master.
Private David N. Phipps, Company H, carpenter.
Corporal William A. Hinds and Private Reuben Smith, Company H, clerks
in Commissary Department.
Privates John Davis, Company H, Larry O’Laughlin, Company H, James
Haley, Company H, Daniel E. Demeritt, Company C, Solomon Kennison,
Company C, and Henry C. Dimond, Company C, overseers of contrabands.
Private Henry C. Dimond was also clerk in the superintendent’s office.
Corporals Charles E. Loring, Company H, Charles M. Marden, Company H,
and George H. Smith, Company H, clerks in office superintendent of
contrabands, Engineer Department.
Private Henry A. Fenner, Company H, orderly to Major Houston, United
States Engineers.
Companies C and H contained a queer mixture of men, that made it hard
to handle them in good shape. No other companies in the regiment were
like them in their _personnel_. There were good men, with excellent
reputations at home and from families of high standing; many men
whose reputations were known to be bad, taken from the rough element
of cities and towns, whose faces and behavior were enough to stamp
them what they were; also many excellent fellows who did their duty
manfully, though they did come from the ordinary ranks of society. This
much must be said about the tough characters: fight as often and hard
as they could among themselves, a frequent occurrence, whenever an
outsider molested any comrade belonging to their companies, they came
to his rescue, and would stand by each other to the last.
The duty performed by these companies was not arduous. It mainly
consisted of guard duty and acting as overseers to gangs of contrabands
at work on the fortifications. There was plenty of this kind of work
to keep in good order earthworks already finished, change the lines
of some portions, raze and rebuild other portions, cut and haul wood,
and, under direction of Mr. Long, volunteer United States engineer (the
same young officer who was at Galveston), a bastioned redoubt, to
form a part of the earthwork defences, was commenced January 30th, and
completed before the companies rejoined their regiment.
There were several large contraband camps maintained at the Parapet,
known as colonies number 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, the Greenville colony and
Brickyard colony. Women and children were kept in camps separate from
the men. These camps received additional negroes brought from abandoned
plantations by details of men sent up river to collect them. A number
of men from C and H were detailed in various capacities to assist such
officers as were in command of these negro camps, for they had to be
governed and fed by the military authorities.
No guard was kept over these contraband colonies, the negroes in them
allowed to go and come as they pleased; but over those able-bodied
negroes in the engineer camp a line of sentinels was placed, whose
orders, at first, allowed them considerable liberty after their day’s
work was done. A great many had what they called wives, who were
domiciled in the colonies, and at dusk would go to see them, frequently
remaining out of camp all night. Sometimes they got on a carouse, and
made things lively. A considerable number would attend the numerous
religious meetings held every night in the swamps. This exodus, at
times, was so great that detachments of men from Companies C and H,
mounted upon mules, would be started to hunt them up and bring them
into camp, a fact Sergeant Meserve well remembers, because on one of
these night hunts his mule became stubborn, and refused to obey the
reins or the sergeant, finally landing him upon a tree-limb, where he
hung until assisted to get down.
It was thought necessary to have more stringent orders than those in
force, and by directions from General Sumner, Engineer Department,
the sentries were ordered to shoot any one that attempted to leave
without authority to do so. Naturally, this created considerable
dissatisfaction among them, especially those who had wives and children
in other camps. This state of feeling led some officers to apprehend
acts of insubordination several times, and the orders caused an
unfortunate affair to happen on the evening of April 17th, when a negro
man, while attempting to creep out of the engineer camp, was detected
in the ditch and challenged; not responding, he was shot in the back
by a sentry from Company H. His wound was an ugly one, and he died the
next day, after receiving every attention that could be given. The
negro camp was thrown into great excitement by this event, requiring
a large force of soldiers on the spot before quiet was restored. Many
officers expressed their indignation at the manner in which negroes
were restricted and guarded in this camp, as they did not consider
these strict rules necessary. To get the case before a court, where
their views could be ventilated, Lieutenant White placed the sentry in
arrest, insisting that he should stand an inquiry into his conduct;
by such action he incurred the displeasure of Company H. The man was
released next day by Captain Leonard, for the case was clear that the
orders compelled him to fire as he did.
Eleven days later, April 28th, an uproar of voices within this same
camp alarmed Private Martin, on sentry duty, who thought trouble
was brewing in the camp and raised an alarm, which caused both
guard-reliefs to turn out and double-quick to the spot, while the rest
of the men also ran down, some with arms, others without, seizing for
a weapon anything they could lay hands on, ready and willing to fight
anybody if their comrades were in danger. An investigation showed that
the contrabands had built a large bonfire, and were singing around it.
After these two events no further trouble was given by the negroes on
engineer duty.
Thrown in contact with such large numbers of contrabands of both sexes
as they were, it would not be Companies C and H if the men did not
manage to find amusement in their surroundings. Perhaps the officers
could tell a good story in connection with the marriage of Captain
Bailey’s negro servant, an occasion they graced with their presence;
while enlisted men could spin startling and true tales of pranks they
played in these camps when off duty.
First-Sergeant Henry C. Mann, Company C, met with a serious and curious
misfortune March 26th. It is surmised he had imbibed freely during
the day, a fault common to many enlisted men at this camp, and as
acting officer of the guard slept at night in the guard tent, upon the
ground, without covering. At daylight he was quite sick from a cold
thus contracted, and was unable to speak above a whisper. Nothing was
thought of this at the time, as every one supposed upon a recovery
from the cold his voice would return. It did not, and Sergeant Mann
was incapacitated from further duty with his company during the term
of service on account of this infirmity. One year after, while walking
on Washington Street, Boston, Mann was seized with a violent coughing
spell, and coughed up two pieces of gristle-like matter, when his
natural voice suddenly returned. Sergeant Mann afterwards served in an
unattached heavy artillery company. He died from consumption several
years ago.
Of the officers from the regiment on detached service, Lieutenant White
had more adventure than the rest. Immediately after the two companies
arrived at Camp Parapet he was detailed, by orders from General Banks,
to visit any abandoned plantations he could find within or without the
Federal lines, gather together what negroes he could and bring them to
the Parapet to work on the fortifications. He usually took from the two
companies a detail of ten men as a guard, finally reducing this detail
to seven men, for his own convenience and to obviate some difficulty he
had experienced in obtaining rations. All of his trips were successful.
The first trip was made January 17th, and resulted in bringing in
about four hundred on the nineteenth. The second trip was made on
the twenty-seventh, when about six hundred were obtained and brought
in January 30th. The third and last trip was made early in February
to Donaldsonville and below. The detail for this trip consisted of:
Corporal Augustus H. Young, Privates Elbridge G. Martin, Jr., Cornelius
Dougherty, and Francis Droll, Company C; Sergeant Joseph J. Whitney,
Company H; Private George H. Brown, Company C; and John Scroder, a
Boston boy, who had been servant to Captain Leonard.
Complaints had been made by old resident planters in the parish, who
remained to work their plantations, that many negroes were gathered
on the plantations committing depredations. Major W. O. Fiske, First
Louisiana Infantry (white troops), suggested to Lieutenant White that a
trip to those plantations be made, and he would be able to get together
a considerable number of negroes to bring down; by so doing benefit
the planters, if they told the truth in their complaint, and also the
Government. Caution was to be exercised, however, as the major did not
fully believe the planters wished to have these negroes disturbed, as
they had work for them to do upon the plantations. What occurred on the
trip would seem to prove this view of the case was correct.
There was a detachment of thirty men, under a lieutenant from the One
Hundred and Tenth New York, stationed at Magnolia Plantation, in St.
John Parish, for what purpose Major Fiske said he did not understand,
but did know this officer was having a fine time there and was on good
terms with the planters, a fact that would make it probable he could
not be counted on to render any assistance. This proved to be so.
Taking a river boat White and his men arrived at a landing two miles
below this plantation about ten o’clock at night. On visiting this
lieutenant a pleasant evening was passed without any mention made of
the business in hand. Quarters were furnished for the night. Early next
morning Lieutenant White, in company of the New York officer, made a
round of adjacent plantations to look over the ground carefully. Upon
their return White explained what he was after, when the lieutenant
stated his position: he was pleasantly situated, well treated, on good
terms with the inhabitants, and did not feel like doing a thing to
disturb his pleasant life. Lieutenant White at once made up his mind
the work must be done without assistance. He quietly gathered his men
together and informed them there was considerable work to do, with a
hint how easier it was to ride than to walk, then left them for the
night. After breakfast, next morning, when he reached the place where
his men quartered, he found seven horses ready, bridled and saddled.
To his inquiry: “What does this mean?” one of the men replied: “It is
White’s cavalry.” As he said it was easier to ride than walk, his men
acted on the suggestion and equipped themselves in the night. Without
difficulty he procured a mount for himself and proceeded to make a
tour of the surrounding plantations, collect the negroes together, and
explain what he wanted to do with them. They received the intelligence
with delight, and were told to bring all of their effects and families
with them, occupy a large storehouse situated by the river bank, where
they could live until he could take them down river. They came in large
numbers.
White left two men to look after matters at the storehouse, with
instructions how to find him in case of need, and with five men started
upon another tour on the succeeding day. While absent, a civilian
provost-marshal, named Marmillon, or calling himself by that name,
rode up to the storehouse, accompanied by a squad of hard-looking
characters, fully armed, and demanded to see the lieutenant in charge.
Word was despatched to White, who returned and confronted the gang.
After some parley, Marmillon demanded that the detail should get out of
the parish; said they had no business there; that he had orders of a
later date than White’s instructions, which stated that all officers on
such detailed duty as his should cease their operations and forthwith
join their commands, insisting that White should read the orders, which
he refused to do in a positive manner, but informed Marmillon no such
orders had been received by him, furthermore, he could not receive them
through him as official, and that he was on a service he meant to put
through to the best of his ability.
The following orders were all that Marmillon could have had at the
time, issued from headquarters of the Department, viz.: a circular of
February 16th, 1863, which explained a system of labor adopted for the
year in utilizing unemployed negroes, and General Orders No. 17, issued
February 18th, 1863, that reads: “No negroes will be taken from the
plantations until further orders, by any officer or other person in the
service of the United States, without previous authority from these
headquarters.”
While the conversation was at its height, with sharp questions and
answers upon both sides, the men of “White’s cavalry” became uneasy and
were ready for a fight, intimating to Lieutenant White their desire
to “clean out” the provost-marshal’s gang. They were held in check,
until finally Lieutenant White notified Marmillon it was of no use to
talk further about the matter, he did not intend to leave the parish
and should not, but the best thing he (Marmillon) could do was to get
out himself with his crowd of scallywag cut-throats, about as rascally
a set of men as he ever saw, for his own men were a little excited,
and if he did not clear out he would not hold himself responsible
for the consequences. This appeared to settle the matter, for the
provost-marshal and his men went away saying they would be heard from
again. That night Marmillon, or somebody, sent to Lieutenant White a
threatening letter, with peremptory orders to leave the parish.
The negroes were attentive listeners to all that passed between the
two parties. During the evening one of them quietly asked White to go
with him to the storehouse, where he found these negroes had made a
barricade, with their bedding, baggage, and sundry traps of all kinds,
on the three sides approached by land (the fourth side was on the water
front), so as to make the building almost bullet proof. In the vicinity
were about two hundred negroes, armed with long sugar-cane knives,
very excited and full of fight. They said, let the provost-marshal and
his gang make an attempt to use force and they would wipe them out of
existence.
The situation was not pleasant to contemplate, not knowing what
Marmillon with his men would attempt to do, and they could not get
away. Repeated attempts to stop boats on the river were failures.
The boats hug the east bank as though they feared some trick was
attempted upon them. This uncertain state of affairs continued for
several days without interference from any quarter, White and his men
in the saddle most of the time, raiding around to prevent any attempt
to surprise them. Finally Lieutenant White and Corporal Young seized
a horse and wagon, drove to Donaldsonville and, by pluck combined
with CHEEK, compelled a steamer bound down river to land at
the storehouse and take the negroes on board. They were landed at the
Parapet and turned over to the proper officers. This detail was absent
about thirteen days, unable all that time to communicate with Captain
Leonard, who thought the party had been captured by the enemy.
Several other short trips after negroes were made at various times by
Lieutenants Phillips and Sanderson without any trouble while performing
that duty.
Preliminary steps were taken in March towards enlisting from the
negro camps a sufficient number of men to organize the First Regiment
Louisiana Engineers, to form a part of the “Corps d’Afrique,” then
under consideration, and later on ordered to be organized as proposed
in General Orders No. 40, from headquarters Nineteenth Army Corps,
issued May 1st, 1863, at Opelousas. In those orders Major-General Banks
proposed to organize a _corps d’armee_ of colored troops, to consist
ultimately of eighteen regiments, representing all arms--infantry,
artillery and cavalry--organized in three divisions of three brigades
each, with appropriate corps of engineers, and flying hospitals to each
division.
Considering the character and standing of many men who received
commissions in these regiments the following part of General Orders No.
40 sounds like _buncombe_. The extract is as follows:
“In the field the efficiency of every corps depends upon the influence
of its officers upon the troops engaged, and the practicable limits
of one direct command is generally estimated at one thousand men. The
most eminent military historians and commanders, among others Thiers
and Chambray, express the opinion, upon a full review of the elements
of military power, that the valor of the soldier is rather acquired
than natural. Nations whose individual heroism is undisputed have
failed as soldiers in the field. The European and American continents
exhibit instances of this character, and the military prowess of every
nation may be estimated by the centuries it has devoted to military
contest, or the traditional passion of its people for military glory.
With a race unaccustomed to military service, much more depends on
the immediate influence of officers upon individual members than with
those that have acquired more or less of warlike habits and spirit by
centuries of contest. It is deemed best, therefore, in the organization
of the Corps d’Afrique to limit the regiments to the smallest number of
men consistent with efficient service in the field, in order to secure
the most thorough instruction and discipline, and the largest influence
of the officers over the troops. At first they will be limited to five
hundred men. The average of American regiments is less than that number.
* * * * *
The chief defect in organizations of this character has arisen from
incorrect ideas of the officers in command. Their discipline has been
lax, and in some cases the conduct of the regiments unsatisfactory and
discreditable. Controversies unnecessary and injurious to the service
have arisen between them and other troops. The organization proposed
will reconcile and avoid many of these troubles.”
The First Louisiana Engineers comprised twelve companies of sixty-five
men each, in three battalions, under command of Colonel Justin Hodge,
U. S. A. This regiment was conceived in the following manner: all
negroes employed at work upon the fortifications were in a camp by
themselves, styled “the engineer camp.” These negroes were organized
into gangs of one hundred and twenty-five men each, commanded by two
enlisted men from Companies C and H, each gang numbered one, two,
three and so on, the same as companies in a regiment. The gangs were
further subdivided into squads of twenty-five men, commanded by the
most intelligent negro to be found. Before recruiting for this regiment
was thought of, acting under orders these gangs were often drilled
in marching, the facings, and other exercises without arms, by the
detailed men who commanded them. Contrary to expectation, they took
a great interest in these drills and improved rapidly, manifesting
considerable intelligence for slaves, one reason why it was easy work
to handle them, for they obeyed all orders without causing trouble,
accustomed as they had been to doing so for their late masters.
Opinions differ in regard to whether the negroes enlisted of their own
free will, fully understanding what they were about, when this regiment
was determined upon. Lieutenant White says, that the two companies
taken by him to Brashear City were sent away in a hurry, and the manner
in which they were mustered into the service was this: the men were
drawn up in line, when a German officer, who spoke poor English, said
something to them that White could not understand, though he stood
near him, and then declared the two companies mustered into service.
These negroes afterwards asked what had been going on, and appeared
ignorant of the nature of the ceremony. No enlistment papers had been
made out or signed that White ever knew. On the other hand, soldiers
who were engaged in recruiting for this regiment say, that the men
signed enlistment rolls, nearly all by affixing their mark, and that
they fully understood what was wanted of them, enlisting of their own
free will. This is probably true so far as other companies than the
first two are concerned. At all events, it is a fact, none of them ever
protested against their enlistment, or mode of muster in, and were
wonderfully tickled at the idea of becoming soldiers, proud to belong
to the “machinery department,” as they termed it, in their ignorance
supposing as a matter of course anybody called an engineer must have
something to do with machinery in some manner.
After passing an examination early in April, the following men of the
Forty-Second were appointed officers in this engineer regiment, and
received their commissions a month later, viz.:
Sergeant Moses Washburn, Company C, to be captain. Commissioned May 23d.
Sergeant Frederick C. Blanchard, Company C, to be captain. Commissioned
May 23d.
Private William E. Melvin, Company C, to be captain. Commissioned May
23d.
Sergeant Edward L. Jones, Company H, to be captain. Commissioned May
23d.
Sergeant Samuel H. Everett, Company H, to be captain. Commissioned May
23d.
Sergeant John G. Meserve, Company C, to be first-lieutenant.
Commissioned May 21st.
Corporal Joseph McField, Company C, to be first-lieutenant.
Commissioned May 21st.
Sergeant James G. Hill, Company K, to be first-lieutenant. Commissioned
March 27th.
Sergeant William H. Shepard, Company K, to be second-lieutenant.
Commissioned March 27th.
Corporal Augustus H. Young, Company C, to be second-lieutenant.
Commissioned May 21st.
Private Edwin G. Sanborn, Company C, to be second-lieutenant.
Commissioned May 23d.
Private Charles E. Warren, Company C, made assistant-surgeon, June 24th.
Private George F. Clark, Company C, appointed quartermaster-sergeant,
June 26th.
Other men in Companies C and H had commissions tendered to them,
which they declined for personal reasons. Some of the above-mentioned
promotions were good--men adapted to carry out the spirit of
Major-General Banks’ order.
An expedition made February 12th by the Third Division down Plaquemine
Bayou, for the purpose of capturing Butte a la Rose, at the head
of Grand Lake, was obliged to abandon the attempt on account of
timber drifts in the swollen bayous, that made a passage through
them impracticable, and returned February 19th. Lieutenant Swift,
Thirty-Eighth Massachusetts, had got an idea into his head that he
could, with a proper force, remove the greatest obstacle encountered
by the Third Division: a completely-packed drift of wood like a raft,
about three miles long, situated at the upper end of Bayou Sorrel, in
St. Martins and Iberville Parishes, a narrow sheet of water about nine
miles long. Swift had received permission, with orders from General
Banks, to attempt it.
In winter months it had been the custom for light-draft river boats to
make a short cut from Berwick Bay by way of Grand Lake, Lake Chilot,
Bayou Sorrel, the Atchafalaya River, and Bayou Plaquemine to the
Mississippi River. In summer months this route is almost dry in places,
and not navigable for local boats. From Brashear City, via Grand Lake,
to Lake Chilot is about thirty miles; Lake Chilot to Bayou Sorrel,
about eight miles; through Bayou Sorrel, nine miles; and from Bayou
Sorrel to Plaquemine, upon the Mississippi, is about twelve miles.
On April 26th, at the earnest request of Colonel Hodge, Lieutenant
White consented to take command of two companies, about one hundred and
thirty men, from the colored engineer regiment, under orders to proceed
to Brashear City to assist Lieutenant Swift in his project.
The officers in command of these two companies were: Captain Samuel H.
Everett, Captain William E. Melvin, Acting Lieutenant David C. Smith
and Acting Lieutenant James S. Lovejoy, from Company C, Forty-Second
Massachusetts Volunteers, Acting Lieutenant ---- Purrington, from
Twelfth Maine Volunteers, and Acting Lieutenant ---- McCown, a clerk to
Colonel Hodge.
At Brashear City the expedition had to remain some three weeks, until
suitable steamers could be furnished from boats in use by the army,
then advancing up the Teche. Two small tug boats and two barges were
finally provided, with all the equipment and rations supposed to be
sufficient for the time it would occupy, calculated by Lieutenant
Swift to be ten days. A start was made about May 20th. No surgeon
was detailed or medicines provided, although an attempt was made to
obtain both in Brashear City. The post hospital officers refused to do
anything in the absence of direct orders to do so, although White had a
personal request from General Banks to get a couple of panniers, with a
full set of surgical instruments and medicines. The bags were obtained,
but no instruments and but few medicines. Lieutenant Swift had with
him a detail of thirty men, Twelfth Maine Infantry, all practical
river lumber drivers. He did not conceal his opinion, that the negro
troops were of no use to him in this scheme, and that the men from the
Twelfth Maine would make short work of the obstacle.
On arrival at Bayou Sorrel, where they were attacked the first night
by guerillas, they went to work with a will for some days, sending the
logs right and left floating down towards Lake Chilot, where they again
collected together to form a formidable obstacle in their rear, and
before they were aware of it they were caught between the obstructions;
they could not go ahead or go back. The weather was extremely hot, with
mosquitos and flies terribly annoying, and before many days Lieutenant
Swift was obliged to call upon Lieutenant White to assist him with the
negro troops.
The expedition lay in this bayou between three to four weeks, the
water falling steadily until there were places in their rear fordable
over sand bars. The men sickened rapidly, measles appeared, and all
of the Maine detachment, except five or six men, were on the sick
list unfit for duty. Fortunately none died. About sixty-five of the
negro detachment were also sick and unfit for duty; seven of them
died. Provisions ran short. The few inhabitants in the vicinity gave
information that the Confederates were operating around their rear to
cut them off, not expecting they could get through in front and must
eventually abandon the boats to try and work back by land towards
Brashear.
In this emergency Swift appealed to White for a trustworthy man to go
to Brashear City for provisions, and arms for the negro companies.
Acting Lieutenant McCown was selected, who, with two negroes, managed
by travelling at night to work their way back to Brashear, where
they obtained provisions, also forty muskets, without bayonets or
ammunition, and brought them up upon a small steamer.
Work was pushed day and night by all of the available hands to break
through the obstacle in front, as it had become impossible to work
back. This was at last accomplished, and with a clear passage beyond
this obstacle the steamers were rushed through to the Mississippi,
reaching that river late in the afternoon of June 19th, and the men
were landed on the east bank, opposite Plaquemine.
One boat struck a snag while entering the Mississippi and sank in water
almost up to her deck cabin; all hands, except the captain with a few
of the crew, were taken on board other boats. Next morning Confederate
soldiers appeared on the river bank and captured those who remained
upon the wreck. It was afterwards ascertained that a force of about
two thousand cavalry reached a point on the Bayou Plaquemine very soon
after the expedition had passed, to find they were too late, when they
pushed for Plaquemine Town, capturing the small force stationed there,
burning the hospital building, and committing other acts of vandalism.
At the season of the year it was undertaken this expedition was a
farce. Had an intelligent officer first made proper inquiries to
ascertain the true state of that line of water course, when it was
navigable and when not, the probabilities are that the expedition would
not have started.
Lieutenant White, Acting Lieutenants Smith and Lovejoy proceeded
immediately to the regimental hospital at Bayou Gentilly, sick with
fever, and for a time it was doubtful whether they would recover. The
two companies went to Port Hudson to rejoin their regiment.
The First Louisiana Engineers received orders to proceed to Baton Rouge
May 20th, with General Neal Dow’s brigade. The brigade passed up river
May 21st; on the twenty-second the engineer regiment had its first
dress parade, with music furnished by the Forty-Seventh Massachusetts
regimental band, that regiment having arrived at the Parapet a few
days before. Without arms, clothed in straw hats and uncouth clothing
(regulation uniforms had not been issued), this regiment made an
appearance that agreeably disappointed the military spectator.
On Sunday, May 24th, camp was struck, transports taken, and the First
Louisiana passed up the river for Port Hudson, where it did some hard
work, received well-merited praise for duty actually performed, and
praise for what it did not do. At Port Hudson this regiment did about
all of the engineer hard labor of the army, divided into detachments to
cover the whole Federal front (about five miles), to throw up temporary
fortifications, dig approaches and mines. On the extreme left a work
for twenty-one guns was made by these colored troops. In the first
assault this regiment carried fascines to fill the ditch, and to their
credit it must be said they ran forward, threw them in helter-skelter,
expecting to receive the enemy’s fire every moment. The enemy did not
fire on them (that was reserved for the assaulting columns of white
troops), and they got back without loss. During this siege the regiment
was as much under fire every day as any white regiment, suffered a loss
of about seventy men, and displayed good pluck for untrained men.
While convalescent, Lieutenant White, disregarding the advice of
Surgeon Heintzelman, returned to his company in New Orleans the last
of June. From there he started for Port Hudson to report to Colonel
Hodge. At Springfield Landing, the base of supplies for the army, an
attack was made on the post July 2d, by a raiding party of Confederate
cavalry, just as a party, including Lieutenant White, were about to
start in a sutler’s wagon for Port Hudson, seven miles distant.
The Confederates dashed through a force of some ninety men from a New
York regiment on duty at the landing, and then divided into squads. One
of these squads rode down to the river bank where White, with a dozen
other men, had taken refuge in an old trading boat. After discharging
a few volleys, from the saddle, they rode away. They did not dare to
dismount, because a sharp musketry-fire was springing up behind them
from the New York infantry-men, who rallied, behind shelter, by twos
and fours, as they saw a chance, until they drove the Confederates
away, after a half hour’s skirmish, and before the Thirtieth
Massachusetts, ordered down from Port Hudson, could intercept them.
From the boat Lieutenant White witnessed the capture of his old
companion, Lieutenant Swift, by a Confederate squad who rode up to look
inside a tent occupied by Swift a few moments before busily engaged in
writing, and who had hid, with two men, in bushes close by. They would
have been safe had not one of the men incautiously looked out to see
what was going on and been seen by the enemy, who ordered them out and
made them prisoners.
Lieutenant White was relieved from duty with the engineer troops July
7th, to rejoin his company.
To sum up what these two companies did is to say that they done their
duty well. They were once, April 24th, under orders for Port Hudson,
and held in readiness for two days to proceed there; the nearest they
ever came to going into active field service.
June 5th, Companies C and H were relieved from duty in the Engineer
Department, and marched seven miles to Bayou Gentilly, accompanied by
the regimental band (sent them at the request of Captain Leonard), and
rejoined the regiment.