At the Alabama-Arkansas Redoubt, heavy fighting erupted during the May 27 assault as attacking troops struggled over rugged ground and felled timber, lost cohesion, and came under a devastating close-range volley from defenders of the 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment. The position originally was a line of piled fence rails covered with dirt from a shallow trench along the ridge edge. On May 30, 200 men from Miles' Louisiana Legion relieved the Alabamians and began building the large earthworks. During the siege, the position was also occupied by the 18th and 3rd Arkansas regiments, the Claiborne Light Infantry Company of Mississippi, and English's Mississippi Battery, whose men served as infantry without cannons. The cannon platforms visible today were probably added during the Union occupation of Port Hudson, since there is no evidence that Confederate troops placed cannons there.