In March and April 1864, men from Company B of the 32nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry joined the Red River Campaign, a combined Union army and naval advance up the Red River toward Shreveport, intended to seize a key Confederate center of military industry, supply, and cotton export and to support broader Union aims in Louisiana, Texas, and along the Mexican border. The campaign, led by Major General Nathaniel P. Banks and Rear Admiral David D. Porter, reached Mansfield, where on April 8 the head of the Union column met Confederate resistance at Sabine Cross Roads. Because the army moved along a single narrow road, its infantry, cavalry, and wagons were stretched for miles, and A.J. Smith's Division of the 16th Corps, including the 32nd Iowa in the Second Brigade under Colonel W.T. Shaw, occupied the rear of the marching column. Around 4 p.m. a Confederate assault struck the outnumbered Federal line, which collapsed into retreat and near rout when fleeing men ran into their own supply train, until a rearguard action stopped the pursuit and Banks ordered the army to regroup at Pleasant Hill. That night the 32nd Iowa camped near Pleasant Hill, about 20 miles behind the head of the column and only vaguely aware of the fighting, until thousands of panic-stricken fugitives from Mansfield stampeded through camp and the division was called to arms just after midnight. At 10 a.m. Shaw's Brigade was sent to the extreme front and formed at a right angle to the Mansfield Road about 1½ miles west of Pleasant Hill, with the 32nd Iowa on the extreme left, the 27th and 14th Iowa beside it near the road, and the 24th Missouri north of the road. Although the brigade held the center, wide gaps on both sides left it exposed, and when the Confederate attack began about 5 p.m. against the center and Union left, supporting units fell back. Orders to withdraw reached the neighboring regiments but not Colonel Scott, leaving the 32nd Iowa alone, surrounded, and fighting in three directions for about two hours until rallied Union forces drove the Confederates back. The 32nd Iowa entered the battle with 469 men able to carry a weapon and lost 210 killed, wounded, or missing. After the battle, Banks decided retreat was the only option, while Confederate forces also withdrew at daylight believing they had been defeated. Because wagons and medical supplies had been lost and roads had been cleared for retreat, Union wounded were left behind in Pleasant Hill under the care of local residents and some Union physicians who became prisoners of war. Men of the 32nd Iowa who died were buried at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, or near where they received care; some were later reburied at the National Cemetery in Alexandria, Louisiana, often in unmarked graves, while other burial places were never found. Total forces were 25,000 Union and 11,000 Confederate, with casualties of 3,980 and 3,976 respectively. At Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, Major General Richard Taylor's Confederate forces turned back the Union advance, forcing Federal troops to fight their way back downriver through hostile territory to the Mississippi.