CHAPTER XI.
The Spring Campaign—Leave Baton Rouge—Port Hudson again—Fort de Russy—Red River Country—Alexandria—Departure of the Army for Shreveport—The Second Division left at Alexandria—Disaster—The Thirty Eighth embark on the Mittie Stephens—Guerilla Attack—Grand Ecore.
The Spring Campaign—Leave Baton Rouge—Port Hudson again—Fort de Russy—Red River Country—Alexandria—Departure of the Army for Shreveport—The Second Division left at Alexandria—Disaster—The Thirty Eighth embark on the Mittie Stephens—Guerilla Attack—Grand Ecore.
letter T
THE campaign had already opened on the Red River, with the capture of Fort de Russy by Gen. A. J. Smith; and a batch of three hundred prisoners had been sent to Baton Rouge, and thence to New Orleans. The Seventh and Twenty Second Kentucky Regiments had arrived to garrison the post; and the third brigade daily expected orders to prepare for the field.
On the 21st of March, the ever-welcome face of the paymaster was seen in camp, the regiment receiving two months’ pay; and the next day, the surplus baggage was packed, the campaign coffee and sugar bags made, the detailed men returned to their several companies, the cartridge-boxes filled, and everything made ready to start at a moment’s notice. The regiment had become well accustomed to river-steamers by this time; and, asthe regimental baggage had been cut down from its former huge proportions, breaking camp was now a comparatively easy task, consequently, there was but little delay after reaching the levee; and at noon of the 23d, the transport left Baton Rouge, and steamed up the river. Much interest was manifested to see Port Hudson from the river-side; and that place, so famous in the annals of the Thirty Eighth, was reached in time to see the setting sun cast its rays on the glistening musket of theCorps d’Afriquesentinel, who walked his beat on its ramparts. The regiment had now been in front of Port Hudson, and to the rear of it, and on all sides of it, but were never destined to enter its works.
Leaving the Mississippi, the steamer entered the Red River, and, on the afternoon of the 24th, passed Fort de Russy, a grim-looking structure, but now in the hands of its rightful owners; while those two old Mississippi mud-turtles, the Benton and the Essex, lay silently at anchor, pictures of war in repose. The country of the Red River presents a striking contrast to that of the Mississippi. For miles, the traveller sails on, through an almost unbroken forest, the river taking a new turn every few yards. Occasionally a clearingcomes in sight, in the centre of which stands a dilapidated building, apparently engaged in a perpetual conflict with the laws of gravitation; a few cattle and long-nosed hogs, and a great many lank dogs, roam about the apology for a garden; while groups of flaxen-headed children peer out of the doorways. It is the country of the poor whites, where labor is considered degrading, where education is unknown, and where Northern enterprise has never penetrated. But the North-western farmer boys have looked on this rich soil; the North-western and the North-eastern lumbermen have felled the tall trees near the river-bank; the mechanics of Massachusetts and New York have seen the field for improved implements in husbandry and in domestic life; and ere many years this distant Southern country will put on a new life, and be the seat of an educated, industrious people.
The boat reached Alexandria at midnight, and, the next morning the regiment disembarked, and went into camp three miles beyond the city. The place was full of troops, belonging to the Thirteenth Corps, who had been in Texas, and had marched up through the Tèche country; the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Corps, who had captured De Russy;the Nineteenth Corps, a portion of whom had been in the department so long that they had become fully acclimated; and one or two brigades of colored troops—mostly Louisianians. The third brigade of the second division was selected to garrison Alexandria, while the main body of the army moved up the country toward Shreveport; and the Thirty Eighth removed to one of the vacated camps, falling heir to the stock of boards collected by the Western men, who were adepts inbuilding shanties.
April 1, the regiment again broke camp, moving nearer the centre of the city; and as Gen. Grover, of the second division, had command of the post at Alexandria, and the army having met with but slight opposition in its march toward Shreveport, it was thought that the third brigade would go no further. At Alexandria, in addition to picket, the regiment did much fatigue duty,—lugging oats, corn, hard-tack, etc., up the steep banks of the levee, working nights as well as days. Beside the white and black soldiers, there was an appendix to the army at Alexandria, consisting of a body of gray-coated scouts, natives of this portion of the country, acquainted with all the by-ways and the hiding-places of the rebels, who went out and in attheir pleasure, and who were looked upon rather uneasily at times by the troops, although confidence was placed in them by Gen. Banks.
For some days, the reports from the moving army and navy were all favorable; the rebels were in full retreat, abandoning their strongholds, and falling back upon Shreveport, where they were to find Gen. Steele in their rear, and the whole trans-Mississippi country was to fall into the hands of the Union generals. Suddenly, there was a pause in the news; then ominous whispers of disaster; finally a full confirmation of the ill-tidings,—Nims’s, the Chicago, and a regular battery taken; the newly-mounted infantry regiments defeated and demoralized; the Thirteenth corps cut to pieces, and heavy losses in the Nineteenth; with the entire army on the defensive. All thoughts of summer quarters in Alexandria were at an end; and on the 12th, the regiment struck tents, marched a few miles beyond the town, and embarked on board the Mittie Stephens, to join the army above. The boat steamed on until midnight, when the low state of the water, and the frequent turns in the river, rendered it imprudent to go further; and a halt was made beside the bank, a picket being thrown out to guard against guerillas.Starting at daylight in the morning, the boat proceeded on her course, without incident until noon, making rather slow progress against the current. As usual, when on a transport, the men were scattered about the vessel, making coffee, eating, sleeping, and reading, not a gun loaded, the equipments and knapsacks piled up promiscuously, and the officers all in the cabin. Every one felt as secure as if sailing up Boston Harbor, when suddenly a gunshot was heard; and before a minute had elapsed, a shower of bullets poured into the boat, rattling against the smoke-pipe, smashing the cabin-windows, and whistling by the heads of the astonished men. Taken completely by surprise, away from their guns and equipments, and no enemy in sight, for a few moments there was some confusion; but the men soon rallied, and poured several volleys into the woods, although, as the boat kept on her course, the fire was probably ineffectual.
Considering that the regiment was fully exposed, and the enemy perfectly secure in his hiding-place, the casualties were remarkably few. One man, sick in the cabin, and lying on a sofa, was instantly killed, and one officer and two men wounded. Another attack was expected at the next bend ofthe river, and preparations were made to meet it; but nothing further occurred, and, within an hour or two, the Union pickets were seen on the bank of the river, and the steamer soon reached Grand Ecore, where the Nineteenth Army Corps was encamped. A boat crowded with captured gray-coats lay in the stream; and as the Mittie Stephens passed her, the Union men, feeling in bad humor over the guerilla attack, exulted a little; but the rebels shouted back the taunts defiantly, and pointed up the river.
The brigade being still at Alexandria, the Thirty Eighth was temporarily assigned to the second brigade of the third division, commanded by Brig. Gen. Birge; and during the two or three days succeeding, the camp was twice changed again, before a proper position was found.