Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE RED RIVER DAMMED.

267

vessels above, ran by the battery at Cane Creek, and escaped, with the exception of the pump-boat, Champion, which was disabled and burned.' After that, the vessels were not impeded on their way to Alexandria.

April 25, 1864.

The land and naval forces of the Red River expedition were now all at Alexandria. What next? Banks found General Hunter there," with orders from General Grant to close up the campaign against Shreveport as speedily as possible, for Sherman's troops were wanted eastward of the Mississippi. Hunter was sent back with a letter to Grant, telling him that the fleet was above the rapids, and would be in danger of capture or destruction if abandoned by the army, and informing him that it would require some time to get them below, if it could be effected at all. Any attempt to renew the Shreveport campaign of course was now out of the question, and all eyes were turned toward the Mississippi, as the next point of destination for the expedition. To get the fleet below the rapids was the first work to be accomplished. Porter did not believe in damming the river, except by words. Banks did, and. ordered Colonel Bailey to do it. He went to work on Sunday, the first of May, with liberty to employ as many men as he might desire. Nearly the whole of the army were engaged in the business, in some way, at different times; and on Sun

[graphic][merged small]

day, the 8th of May, a main dam of stone and timber, and sunken coalboats, was finished.' It stretched across the river, there nearly eight hundred feet in width, and then from four to six feet in depth, and running at the rate of ten miles an hour.

The work was successful. The water was raised seven feet on the rapids, and that afternoon the gun-boats Osage, Fort Hindman, and Neosho, with

1 In this affair, the Cricket was hulled thirty-eight times, and lost half her crew of fifty men, killed and wounded. The Juliet was badly damaged, and lost fifteen men; and the gun-boat, Fort Hindman, was also badly maimed. As she ran by the battery, her wheel-ropes were cut by the shot, and she drifted helplessly down the stream.

2 Admiral Porter, in his dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy, says: "The work was commenced by running out from the left bank of the river a tree-dam, made of the bodies of very large trees, brush, brick, and This was run stone, cross-tied with other heavy timber, and strengthened in every way ingenuity could devise. about three hundred feet into the river. Four large coal-barges were then filled with brick, and sunk at the end of it. From the right bank of the river cribs filled with stone were built out to meet the barges." Speaking of the break in the dam, he said it was a fortunate occurrence, for it was caused by the swinging around of two barges at the center, which formed a cushion for the vessels passing through, and prevented their striking the rocks.

268

PASSAGE OF THE RED RIVER RAPIDS.

two other vessels, passed the rapids, and lay just above the dam. But the greater portion of the fleet was still, and evinced no disposition to move. Banks inspected the work, and perceiving an immense pressure upon it, feared it might give way before the fleet could pass. He rode up the shore to a point opposite the fleet, at midnight, and sent a note to Porter, telling him of his fears, and urging him to put his vessels in condition, by lightening them, to pass over the rapids. This was not done. At five o'clock the next morning, a portion of the dam gave way. The three vessels went safely down through the sluice thus made, and the Lexington, the only one ready, followed with equal safety. Had all been ready, the whole fleet might have passed over in the course of a few hours, before the water became too shallow. The damage to the dam was partially repaired. It was also strengthened by wing dams, and, on the 12th of May, when it was completed, and the vessels above had been lightened, they all passed into the deeper water below with safety, before eight o'clock the next morning. Then Admiral

• May 16, 1864.

Porter wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, saying: “There seems to have been an especial Providence looking out for us, in providing a man [Colonel Bailey] equal to the emergency. ... This proposition looked like madness, and the best engineers ridiculed it, but Colonel Bailey was so sanguine of success, that I requested General Banks to have it done."

2

While the army was detained at Alexandria on account of the fleet, it was re-enforced' by a large portion of the troops that had been ⚫ April 29. garrisoning ports in the vicinity of Matagorda Bay, on the Texan coast. They were led by General John A. McClernand, who left General Fitz-Henry Warren in command of the remainder at Matagorda. These posts had been evacuated by order of General Grant; and McClernand was soon followed by Warren, who likewise ascended the Red River, until stopped by Confederate batteries, when he fell back to the remains of Fort de Russy, and took post there. Banks had also received a dispatch from Halleck, in the name of General Grant, which directed the modification of previous orders, so that no troops should "be withdrawn from operations against Shreveport and on the Red River." But it was too late, and when the fleet was all below the rapids, and found the back-water of the then brimful Mississippi, one hundred and fifty miles distant, flowing up to Alexandria, and thus insuring a safe passage over all bars below. C May 13. orders were given for the army to move. The fleet moved likewise, with the transports laden with cotton, which had been captured as prize for the navy. Caution marked the advance, for the Confederates were hovering near, and swarming on the banks below. A week before the expedition moved, the gun-boats Signal and Covington, convoying the transport Warren down the river, the three bearing about four hundred soldiers, were fired upon at Dunn's Bayou, thirty miles

May 5.

1 General Banks's Report.

с

* See page 224.

When the fleet moved up the river, Admiral Porter proclaimed that all cotton seized within a league of that river should be lawful prize for the naval force under his command. There was but little opportunity for such seizures while the fleet was above Alexandria; but while lying there, and the army was hard at work censtructing the dam for the benefit of the fleet, the Governinent wagons were kept very busy bringing in the staple from the neighboring plantations. In this profitable part of the public service the officers and soldiers of the army had no share. It is said that the transports were so laden with cotton, that there was no room for the Union inhabitants of Alexandria to flee, with their effects, from the vengeance of the Confederates.

END OF THE SHREVEPORT EXPEDITION.

269 below Alexandria, by a large Confederate force, at the morning twilight, and were so badly injured that the Covington was abandoned and burnt, and the other two vessels were surrendered. Of the soldiers, about one hundred and fifty were captured, and about one hundred were killed. The remainder took to the shore and escaped. Soon afterward, the City Belle, with a little more than four hundred Ohio troops, was captured by another guerrilla party, when about one-half of them escaped.

But the army in its march for Simms' Port met with very little opposition, excepting by a considerable force of Confederate cavalry, who, at daybreak on the 16th, confronted its advance at Mansura, near Marksville, where the National skirmishers and artillery, after pushing the foe back across an open prairie to a wood, kept up a fire for about three hours, until the main body came up. A battle-line was then formed, with General Emory and his forces on the right, and General A. J. Smith and his command on the left. After a sharp but brief struggle, the Confederates were dispersed, losing a number of men by capture. Among these were some of the prisoners they had taken on the Signal and Warren some days before. That evening the army reached the Atchafalaya at Simms' Port, where, under the direction of Colonel Bailey, a bridge, more than six hundred yards long, was constructed of steamboats. Over it the wagon-train passed on the afternoon of the 19th, at which time the rear of the army, composed of the command of A. J. Smith, was attacked at Yellow Bayou by a Confederate force under Polignac. He was beaten back with a heavy loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, while the Nationals lost one hundred and fifty in killed and wounded. On the following day the army crossed the Atchafalaya, when General E. R. S. Canby, who had arrived the day before, assumed the command of Banks's troops as a part of the forces of the Military Division of West Mississippi, to the charge of which he had been assigned. General Banks then hastened to New Orleans.

General Smith returned to Memphis, stopping on his way up the Mississippi at Sunnyside, in the extreme southeastern part of Arkansas, to seek a reported force of Confederates, under Marmaduke, who had gathered there with mischievous intent. He found them, three thousand strong, near Columbia, the capital of Chicot County, posted across a bayou that empties into Lake Chicot. He He long attacked and drove them away, with

a loss of about one hundred men.

They retreated westward, and were

May 20,

1864.

[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

EDWARD R. 8. CANBY.

Admiral

no more seen in that region. Smith's loss was about ninety men. Porter, meanwhile, had passed quietly down the Red River, nearly parallel with the march of the army, and resumed the duty of keeping open and safe the navigation of the Mississippi.

270

1864.

STEELE'S ARMY IN ARKANSAS.

Let us now see what the Seventh Army Corps, under General Steele, was doing in the way of co-operation with the Red River expedition while it was in progress. General Steele was at his head-quarters at Little Rock when that expedition moved. On the 23d of March he started southward, on the military road, with about eight thousand troops, horse and foot, the former commanded by General Carr. On the previous day General Thayer, commanding the Army of the Frontier, left Fort Smith with about five thousand men, for the purpose of joining Steele at Arkadelphia; and Colonel Clayton marched from Pine Bluff with a small force to the left of Steele, in the direction of Camden, a place held and well fortified by the Confederates. That was Steele's first objective, for Sterling Price, with a considerable force, was holding a line from that place westward to Washington, the capital of Hempstead County. It was necessary to dispose of this force before marching toward Shreveport.

The roads were so wretched that the junction of forces could not be relied upon, and Thayer failed to join Steele at Arkadelphia. The latter had been compelled to skirmish at the crossings of streams all the way from Benton, and his troops were somewhat worn by fatigue, but, after waiting two days for Thayer, he pushed on in the direction of Washington, for the purpose of flanking Camden, and drawing Price out of his fortifications there. He encountered the cavalry of Marmaduke and Cabell at almost every step, and day after day skirmished, sometimes lightly and sometimes heavily, with them, until the 10th of April, when he found Price in strong force across his path at Prairie d'Anne, not far from Washington, prepared to make a decided stand. Steele had been joined by Thayer, and he readily accepted battle. An artillery fight ensued, which lasted until dark. The Confederates made a desperate attempt in the darkness to capture Steele's guns, but failed. He pushed nearer their position the next day, and at the dawn of the 12th attempted to turn their flank, when they retreated to Washington, pursued for several miles by cavalry.

Steele now heard of the disaster to the Union troops at Sabine Cross Roads,' and, instead of pursuing Price toward Washington, turned sharply toward Camden. The Confederates quickly perceived his purpose, and, stimulated to stronger action by the news from Western Louisiana, they made vigorous efforts to save Camden from Steele's grasp. While his army was corduroying Bogue bottom, one of the worst in the State, his rear, under Thayer, was strongly attacked by General Dockery. The Confederates were repulsed, and the army moved on, but to find itself confronted by Cabell and Shelby. These were driven from position to position, and on the evening of the 15th the National troops entered

• April. Camden.

b

Although Steele was in a strong place, and supplies could be easily obtained by way of the Washita, he found Camden to be an uncomfortable and dangerous post. The Confederates were swarming thickly around him, for there was no occasion for their employment in the direction of the Red River. Three days after his arrival they attacked and captured'

⚫ April 18.

[ocr errors]

a forage train, little more than a dozen miles from the Union

[blocks in formation]
[subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »