MAJOR-GENERAL NATHANIEL P. BANKS, U. S. V. In command of the Union forces in the Red River Campaign.
THE “LEXINGTON” PASSING OYER THE FALLS AT THE DAM. From a war-time sketch.
THE DEFENSE OF THE RED RIVER.
a strategic point of vital importance. All the infantry not ־with Taylor, opposed to Banks, was directed on Shreveport. Price with his cavalry command was instructed to delay the march of Steele’s column whilst the concentration was "being made. Occupying a central position at Shreveport, with the enemy’s columns approaching from opposite directions, I proposed drawing them within striking distance, when, by concentrating upon and striking them in detail, both columns might be crippled or destroyed.
Banks pushed on to Natchitoches. It was expected he would be detained there several days in accumulating supplies. Steele on the Little Missouri and Banks at Natchitoches were but about one hundred miles from Shreveport or Marshall. The character of the country did not admit of their
mediate movement of the enemy, by means of his transports, to Alexandria, placed General Taylor in a very embarrassing position.
He extricated himself with his characteristic tact by a march of seventy miles through the pine woods.
Banks now pressed forward from Berwick Bay, by the line of the Teche, and by the aid of steamers, on both the Mississippi and Bed rivers, concentrated at Alexandria a force of over 30,000 men, supported by the most powerful naval armament ever employed on a river.
As soon as I received intelligence of the debarkation of the enemy at Sims-port, I ordered General Price, who commanded in Arkansas, to despatch his entire infantry, consisting of Churchill’s and Parsons’s divisions, to Shreveport, and General Maxey to move toward General Price, and, as soon as Steele advanced, to join Price with his whole command, Indians included.
The cavalry east of the Ouachita was directed to fall back toward Natchitoches, and subsequently to oppose, as far as possible, the advance of the enemy’s fleet. It was under the command of General St. John B.
Liddell. All disposable infantry in Texas was directed on Marshall, and although the enemy still had a force of several thousand on the coast, I reduced the number of men holding the defenses to an absolute minimum. General Magru-der’s field report shows that but 2300 men were left in Texas. Except these, every effective soldier in the department was put in front of Steele or in support of Taylor.
The enemy was operating with a force, according to my information, of full 50,000 effective men; with the utmost powers of concentration not 25,000 men of all arms could be brought to oppose his movements. Taylor had at Mansfield after the junction of Green, 11,000 effectives with 5000 infantry from Price’s army in one day’s march of him at Keachie. Price, with 6000 or 8000 cavalry, was engaged in holding in cheek the advance of Steele, whose column, according to our information, did not number less than 15,000 of all arms. Shreveport was made the point of concentration; with its fortifications covering the depots, arsenals, and shops at Jefferson, Marshall, and above, it was
BY E. KIRBY SMITH, GENERAL, C. S. A. Commander of tlie Trans-Mississippi Department.
SOON after my arrival in the Trans-Mississippi Department, I became convinced that the valley of the Bed Biver was the only practicable line of operations by which the enemy could penetrate the country. This fact was well understood and appreciated by their generals.
I addressed myself to the task of defending this line with the slender means at my disposal. Fortifications were erected on the lower Bed Biver; Shreveport and Camden were fortified, and works were ordered on the Sabine and the crossings of the upper Bed Biver. Depots were established on the shortest lines of communication between the Bed Biver valley and the troops serving in Arkansas and Texas. These commands were directed to be held ready to move with little delay, and every preparation was made in advance for accelerating a concentration, at all times difficult over long distances, and through a country destitute of supplies and with limited means of transportation.
In February, 1864, the enemy were preparing in New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Little Bock for offensive operations. Though 25,000 of the enemy were reported on the Texas coast, my information convinced me that the valley of the Bed Biver would be the principal theater of operations, and Shreveport the objective point of the columns moving from Arkansas and Louisiana.
On the 21st of February, General Magruder, commanding in Texas, was ordered to hold Green’s division of cavalry in readiness to move at a moment’s warning, and on the 5th of March the division was ordered to march at once to Alexandria and report to General Taylor, who had command in Louisiana. About that time the enemy commenced massing his forces at Berwick Bay.
On the 12th of March a column of ten thousand men, composed of portions of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps under General A. J. Smith, moved down from Vicksburg to Simsport, and advanced with such celerity on Fort De Bussy, taking it in reverse, that General Taylor was not allowed time to concentrate and cover this important work, our only means of arresting the progress of the gun-boats. The fall of this work and the im-
269
NABBATIVE OF EVENTS.
The capture of Vicksburg and Port Hudson on the Mississipjii, in 1863 (see p. 211), completely isolated the trans-Mississippi territory of the Confederacy, and the Union government determined, for political reasons, “ to plant the flag in Texas.” A detachment of the Nineteenth Corps, Army of the Gulf, under General IV. B. Franklin, convoyed by the navy, went by sea, in September, to attempt the capture of Houston and Galveston. (An unsuccessful attack on Galveston had been made in January previous by a land and naval force led by General A. J. Hamilton.) Franklin’s gun-boats were repulsed by Confederate batteries at Pass Franklin, on the 8th, and the expedition returned to New Orleans. In October General Banks, with the Thirteenth Corps, under General C. C. Washburne, sailed from New Orleans and seized Brazos Island, Brownsville, and Point Isabel, on the Rio Grande. Leaving the troops there in command of General N. J. T. Dana, Banks assembled an army and fleet and entered Red River in March, 1864. At the sametimeGeneralSteele’soolumnatLittleRockmarched through Southern Arkansas toward the Red River to cooperate with Banks.
CBIB OP STONE AND BKICK.
FEATURES OF THE RED RIVER DAM.