By March 17, three Federal divisions led by Brigadier-General Andrew J. Smith were at Alexandria, a key town in Louisiana, as part of the Red River campaign. Smith was joined by the massive Federal gunboat squadron under Rear-Admiral David D. Porter. There the Federals had to wait for the Army of the Gulf, currently commanded by Major-General William B. Franklin, to come up and join them. The overall Gulf army commander, Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks, was still in New Orleans helping to install a Unionist state government and would not be joining the expedition until the 24th.
Franklin’s Federals marched through Vermilionville (now Lafayette) on the 18th, where a private from the 116th New York Infantry noted that “the ladies of this town look upon us with contempt for the deeds the Yankee army did on their campaign in October, 1863 in that vicinity, but the Yankee boys only laugh at their attempts to ridicule them.”
The only major opposition to the Federals converging on Alexandria was Major-General Richard Taylor’s Confederate Army of West Louisiana. His force consisted of just 6,100 officers and men, as opposed to the 27,000 Federals under A.J. Smith and Franklin. Taylor therefore had to fall back, up the Red River to about 45 miles below Natchitoches. A Confederate soldier wrote that they had marched “for five days and nights and we have had an average of about one good meal per day.” But they were still in front of Shreveport, a key city the Federals needed if their Red River campaign was to succeed.
Meanwhile, Major-General Frederick Steele was still preparing his 7,000-man Federal Army of Arkansas (officially the 3rd Division of the Seventh Corps) to march down from Little Rock to meet the Army of the Gulf at Shreveport. Steele reported that his army was inadequate to support the Red River campaign as ordered. He argued that Banks’s army was strong enough to take care of itself, and moving through southern Arkansas would be treacherous due to lack of forage.
Finally, after repeated orders from his superiors, Steele agreed to move south. He told General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant on the 18th that he planned “to concentrate my forces at Arkadelphia, about 10,000 strong, move from there on Camden and open communication back to Pine Bluff, and then move on Shreveport in time to co-operate with Banks at that point.”
When Steele requested more horses for transportation, Major-General William T. Sherman, commanding the Military Division of the Mississippi, replied, “It is now too late to make preparations for the expedition which should have started on the 7th.” Sherman would not provide Steele with any horses until he explained “the cause of this delay.”
Steele did not prepare his army to move out of Little Rock until the 23rd, a week and a half after being ordered to move by Grant. He planned to link with Federals from Fort Smith under Brigadier-General John M. Thayer at Arkadelphia, which would increase the force to about 10,400 men. Steele continued complaining that he lacked food for his men and horses, and Confederate cavalry regularly assailed his flanks.
That same day, Franklin’s Federals arrived at Alexandria and joined with the A.J. Smith’s infantry and Porter’s navy. Banks got there the next day and was informed that water levels on the Red River were lowering, which could potentially hamper naval operations. Meanwhile, Porter reported that his vessels had seized over 2,000 bales of cotton, along with vast amounts of molasses and wool, since entering the Red. All goods had been sent to Federals downriver or destroyed.
General Edmund Kirby Smith, commanding the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department from Shreveport, did not believe that Louisiana could be held. He therefore ordered Taylor to withdraw his army to Shreveport and await reinforcements from Texas and Arkansas. These forces would then move north and join with Major-General Sterling Price’s Confederates opposing Steele in Arkansas. Smith had previously told Taylor, “The only field for great results in this is the District of Arkansas, and a concentration must be made there this summer for the recovery of the Arkansas Valley.”
Price’s Confederates were stationed near Washington, Arkansas, about 120 miles southwest of Steele’s Federals at Little Rock. Price urged Smith to send him all troops from Texas and Louisiana so he could move north, defeat Steele, and then continue north to regain his home state of Missouri. Smith told Price that the numbers needed for such a campaign were not available.
As more intelligence was gathered, Smith came to believe that Steele posed no real threat, and Taylor’s assertion that Louisiana could be saved was correct. Smith therefore resolved to defend Shreveport, the military, political, and economic center of the Trans-Mississippi Department. This would involve defeating the strong Federal force coming up the Red River first, and then turning north to defeat Steele’s weaker force in Arkansas.
Smith directed Price to send Brigadier-General Thomas J. Churchill’s 5,000-man division to reinforce Taylor. Smith then began arranging for the rest of Price’s men to join Taylor at Natchitoches, and if the Federals moved north from Alexandria to confront them, “bring matters to an issue.”
Churchill’s Confederates crossed into Louisiana on the 22nd. According to Captain Eathan Allen Pinnell, “Everyone is rejoicing that we have left Arkansas. It is true that our direction is not that which we would have preferred, but anything, or anywhere, in preference to an inactive camp life in Arkansas.” The contingent reached Shreveport two days later.
Bibliography
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- Cutrer, Thomas W., Theater of a Separate War: The Civil War West of the Mississippi River. The University of North Carolina Press, (Kindle Edition), 2017.
- Davis, Jefferson, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government: All Volumes. Heraklion Press, Kindle Edition 2013, 1889.
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