At about 4:30 pm on Saturday April 9, 1864, downtown Pleasant Hill became the center of a deafening battle as thousands of Union soldiers ran in various directions to meet Confederate attacks converging from three directions. Confederate cavalry was dismounted to the right rear, General Churchill's Confederate Arkansas and Missouri divisions charged in behind and to the left rear, General Walker's Texas division charged into town down the Mansfield Road and Main Street, General Green's dismounted Confederate cavalry moved through the woods to the left front, and General Polinac's Louisiana and Texas division came in more slowly through the woods farther to the left and front. Military activity had been heavy for about a week as General Taylor's Confederate army concentrated here and then fell back to Mansfield. Union cavalry entered town on the 7th, fought Confederate cavalry through town for about 2 miles to Dr. Wilson's farm, and then the Confederates slowly fell back fighting off and on to Sabine Crossroads near Mansfield. The Union twenty-mile-long wagon train began passing through on the 7th and continued all day on the 8th while Union soldiers tried to get past it to where General Taylor's army was defeating the Union cavalry at Sabine Crossroads on the 8th. Most Union infantry arrived during the night of the 8th from Grand Ecore and began digging in for the Confederate attack. Skirmishing continued around town all day on the 9th until full battle erupted around 4 pm and lasted for over two hours in and around the town. About dark the Confederates fell back about 2 miles, and during the night the Union forces withdrew, leaving dead and wounded where they fell. On Sunday morning the field was covered with many thousands of dead, dying, and wounded men, well over a thousand dead horses, and broken and scattered equipment. Pleasant Hill then remained busy with burying the dead, tending the wounded, burning the dead horses, gathering thousands of muskets and other usable equipment, and cleaning up after the battle. More fighting still lay ahead as Union forces extricated themselves from the Red River Campaign, but the effort to take Shreveport and the threatened invasion of Texas was over.