The Spring Campaign—Leave Baton Rouge—Port Hudson again—Fort de
Russy—Red River Country—Alexandria—Departure of the Army for
Shreveport—The Second Division left at Alexandria—Disaster—The
Thirty Eighth embark on the Mittie Stephens—Guerilla Attack—Grand
Ecore.
The campaign had already opened on the Red River, with the capture
of Fort de Russy by Gen. A. J. Smith; and a batch of three hundred
prisoners had been sent to Baton Rouge, and thence to New Orleans.
The Seventh and Twenty Second Kentucky Regiments had arrived to
garrison the post; and the third brigade daily expected orders to
prepare for the field.
On the 21st of March, the ever-welcome face of the paymaster was
seen in camp, the regiment receiving two months’ pay; and the next
day, the surplus baggage was packed, the campaign coffee and sugar
bags made, the detailed men returned to their several companies,
the cartridge-boxes filled, and everything made ready to start
at a moment’s notice. The regiment had become well accustomed to
river-steamers by this time; and, as the regimental baggage had been
cut down from its former huge proportions, breaking camp was now a
comparatively easy task, consequently, there was but little delay
after reaching the levee; and at noon of the 23d, the transport left
Baton Rouge, and steamed up the river. Much interest was manifested
to see Port Hudson from the river-side; and that place, so famous
in the annals of the Thirty Eighth, was reached in time to see the
setting sun cast its rays on the glistening musket of the Corps
d’Afrique sentinel, who walked his beat on its ramparts. The regiment
had now been in front of Port Hudson, and to the rear of it, and on
all sides of it, but were never destined to enter its works.
Leaving the Mississippi, the steamer entered the Red River, and,
on the afternoon of the 24th, passed Fort de Russy, a grim-looking
structure, but now in the hands of its rightful owners; while those
two old Mississippi mud-turtles, the Benton and the Essex, lay
silently at anchor, pictures of war in repose. The country of the
Red River presents a striking contrast to that of the Mississippi.
For miles, the traveller sails on, through an almost unbroken
forest, the river taking a new turn every few yards. Occasionally a
clearing comes in sight, in the centre of which stands a dilapidated
building, apparently engaged in a perpetual conflict with the laws
of gravitation; a few cattle and long-nosed hogs, and a great many
lank dogs, roam about the apology for a garden; while groups of
flaxen-headed children peer out of the doorways. It is the country of
the poor whites, where labor is considered degrading, where education
is unknown, and where Northern enterprise has never penetrated. But
the North-western farmer boys have looked on this rich soil; the
North-western and the North-eastern lumbermen have felled the tall
trees near the river-bank; the mechanics of Massachusetts and New
York have seen the field for improved implements in husbandry and in
domestic life; and ere many years this distant Southern country will
put on a new life, and be the seat of an educated, industrious people.
The boat reached Alexandria at midnight, and, the next morning the
regiment disembarked, and went into camp three miles beyond the city.
The place was full of troops, belonging to the Thirteenth Corps, who
had been in Texas, and had marched up through the Tèche country; the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Corps, who had captured De Russy; the
Nineteenth Corps, a portion of whom had been in the department so
long that they had become fully acclimated; and one or two brigades
of colored troops—mostly Louisianians. The third brigade of the
second division was selected to garrison Alexandria, while the main
body of the army moved up the country toward Shreveport; and the
Thirty Eighth removed to one of the vacated camps, falling heir to
the stock of boards collected by the Western men, who were adepts in
building shanties.
April 1, the regiment again broke camp, moving nearer the centre of
the city; and as Gen. Grover, of the second division, had command
of the post at Alexandria, and the army having met with but slight
opposition in its march toward Shreveport, it was thought that
the third brigade would go no further. At Alexandria, in addition
to picket, the regiment did much fatigue duty,—lugging oats,
corn, hard-tack, etc., up the steep banks of the levee, working
nights as well as days. Beside the white and black soldiers, there
was an appendix to the army at Alexandria, consisting of a body
of gray-coated scouts, natives of this portion of the country,
acquainted with all the by-ways and the hiding-places of the rebels,
who went out and in at their pleasure, and who were looked upon
rather uneasily at times by the troops, although confidence was
placed in them by Gen. Banks.
For some days, the reports from the moving army and navy were
all favorable; the rebels were in full retreat, abandoning their
strongholds, and falling back upon Shreveport, where they were to
find Gen. Steele in their rear, and the whole trans-Mississippi
country was to fall into the hands of the Union generals. Suddenly,
there was a pause in the news; then ominous whispers of disaster;
finally a full confirmation of the ill-tidings,—Nims’s, the Chicago,
and a regular battery taken; the newly-mounted infantry regiments
defeated and demoralized; the Thirteenth corps cut to pieces,
and heavy losses in the Nineteenth; with the entire army on the
defensive. All thoughts of summer quarters in Alexandria were at an
end; and on the 12th, the regiment struck tents, marched a few miles
beyond the town, and embarked on board the Mittie Stephens, to join
the army above. The boat steamed on until midnight, when the low
state of the water, and the frequent turns in the river, rendered
it imprudent to go further; and a halt was made beside the bank, a
picket being thrown out to guard against guerillas. Starting at
daylight in the morning, the boat proceeded on her course, without
incident until noon, making rather slow progress against the current.
As usual, when on a transport, the men were scattered about the
vessel, making coffee, eating, sleeping, and reading, not a gun
loaded, the equipments and knapsacks piled up promiscuously, and the
officers all in the cabin. Every one felt as secure as if sailing up
Boston Harbor, when suddenly a gunshot was heard; and before a minute
had elapsed, a shower of bullets poured into the boat, rattling
against the smoke-pipe, smashing the cabin-windows, and whistling
by the heads of the astonished men. Taken completely by surprise,
away from their guns and equipments, and no enemy in sight, for a
few moments there was some confusion; but the men soon rallied, and
poured several volleys into the woods, although, as the boat kept on
her course, the fire was probably ineffectual.
Considering that the regiment was fully exposed, and the enemy
perfectly secure in his hiding-place, the casualties were remarkably
few. One man, sick in the cabin, and lying on a sofa, was instantly
killed, and one officer and two men wounded. Another attack was
expected at the next bend of the river, and preparations were made
to meet it; but nothing further occurred, and, within an hour or
two, the Union pickets were seen on the bank of the river, and the
steamer soon reached Grand Ecore, where the Nineteenth Army Corps was
encamped. A boat crowded with captured gray-coats lay in the stream;
and as the Mittie Stephens passed her, the Union men, feeling in bad
humor over the guerilla attack, exulted a little; but the rebels
shouted back the taunts defiantly, and pointed up the river.
The brigade being still at Alexandria, the Thirty Eighth was
temporarily assigned to the second brigade of the third division,
commanded by Brig. Gen. Birge; and during the two or three days
succeeding, the camp was twice changed again, before a proper
position was found.