The Red River Campaign

In March 1864, nearly 30,000 Union troops converged on Alexandria, Louisiana, for a campaign up the Red River intended to gain control of Texas, discourage Mexico from entering the war for the Confederacy, and seize rumored cotton stores along the river. Major General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks coordinated the effort with 15,000 troops from Franklin, 11,000 veterans from Sherman's army under General Andrew J. Smith arriving from Vicksburg in twenty-one transports, and a large naval force under Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter. Opposing them were about 6,000 Confederates under General Richard Taylor, later reinforced at Alexandria by 5,000 Texas cavalry under Major General "Fighting Tom" Green and Arkansas troops under Major General Sterling Price. On March 15, Porter and Smith captured Fort DeRussy near Marksville and reached Alexandria the next day, while Banks's army arrived on March 24. By late March, the Union force there included 25,000 infantry and artillery, 4,000 cavalry, and a navy of sixty ships mounting 210 guns. Low water on the Red River delayed the advance because the fleet could not cross the rapids above Alexandria, but as the river rose Porter began moving vessels across on March 26; the steamer Eastport ran aground, the hospital boat Woodford sank, and by April 3 thirty transports and twelve gunboats had passed upriver toward Shreveport while larger boats remained behind, as Banks moved north and captured Natchitoches. Banks then turned west toward Mansfield, where Taylor attacked on April 8 and threw the Union army into confusion; Banks regrouped and struck back at Pleasant Hill on April 9, forcing the Confederates to withdraw, yet his officers persuaded him to abandon the march. Porter, whose fleet had partly reached Springfield Landing south of Shreveport, then moved downriver to join Banks at Grand Ecore. Confederate attacks harried the retreat, and Porter's largest gunboat, Eastport, was sunk by a mine, refloated, grounded again near Montgomery, and destroyed with 3,000 pounds of explosives. By April 28, Union troops were back around Alexandria, where the Red River had fallen so low that the fleet, including ten gunboats from the Mississippi squadron, was trapped above the rapids and threatened with capture.

Pineville, Louisiana · United States