Several months later, a second plan by Banks to take Sabine Pass by an overland march from Louisiana was ruled out due to communication difficulties. Then, in November, the determined Banks succeeded in landing 7,000 troops, including a Negro regiment, on the Brazos de Santiago bar at the mouth of the Rio Grande. When Brigadier General Hamilton P. Bee learned of this at his headquarters in nearby Brownsville, he realized that his 1,200 soldiers could not defend the city. So, on November 3, 1863, Bee and his men evacuated the burning border town.[88] With the Matamoros trade route thus closed by the Union seizure of Brownsville, cotton for Mexico would now have to be hauled either through Laredo, two hundred thirty-five miles upstream from Brownsville, or through Eagle Pass, ninety miles up the river from Laredo. As for continuing the occupation of the Rio Grande Valley, Union commanders agreed that such an effort would involve the use of an unjustified number of regiments.[89]
Elsewhere along the coast, Union troops were similarly active. By the end of 1863 the Federals had limited forces at Corpus Christi, Mustang Island, Pass Cavallo, Saint Joseph’s Island, Indianola, and Port Lavaca. Except for Galveston the enemy controlled the principal coastal towns of the state.[90] But, as Confederate officers and state leaders called for more men and desperately planned to regain Texas ports, high strategic considerations in Washington caused the Union to evacuate most of the occupied coast. It was again a matter of tying up too many regiments, forces that would be needed in 1864 for a massive invasion of the Red River Valley, an action that might well cause the fall of the whole southwest.[91] Gradually the invaders withdrew until the only force remaining on the coast was a strong command located near Brownsville.
Near the end of 1863 the Texans again held a gubernatorial election. When the able Lubbock announced that he would not seek office again, the contest was between Pendleton Murrah and T. J. Chambers. In a dull campaign the ailing Murrah easily won.[92]
BEGINNING OF THE END: 1864
The western frontier of Texas was again being ravaged by Indian raids in 1864. The Frontier Regiment still existed; but, once it was accepted into Confederate service, all but four of its companies were transferred to East Texas. These four companies and a small command known as Bourland’s Border Regiment, stationed near the Red River, simply could not safeguard the state’s extensive line of settlement against heavy Indian attacks.[93] In one raid six hundred Comanches and Kiowas depredated the Elm Creek locality in Young County.[94] The only help that the Texas government could offer the hard-pressed frontiersmen was advice to “fort up” for security. In explaining this means of defense, a state general order stressed the need for “getting together & building blockhouses and stockade to live in. Four, five, or more families might get together in this way, & thus insure the safety of the women & children.”[95] Buck Barry, an experienced Indian fighter, described an ideal stockade as four houses fenced together with picket logs and featuring two log bastions on opposite corners to allow sharpshooters to cover all approaches.[96] Until well after the end of the great sectional struggle, Texas frontier families relied on this passive defensive means during frequent periods of Indian unrest.
With the arrival of spring, 1864, the Federals commenced an invasion up the Red River that was expected to penetrate into Texas. Again General Banks had charge of the expedition. This time his forces moved up the Red River while another Union column pushed southward through Arkansas. The objective of both Federal armies was Shreveport. By late March, General Kirby Smith had received communications that convinced him of the seriousness of these two enemy columns. In all, the enemy forces were estimated to total 50,000 foot soldiers and 8,000 cavalry troops. Major General Richard Taylor, in command of Confederate forces in western Louisiana, and Major General Sterling Price, Confederate commander in Arkansas, were both instructed to pull back cautiously toward Shreveport before the Federal advances. The two commanders were also warned to avoid heavy clashes with the invaders unless success was sure to follow for the Southerners.[97] General Kirby Smith warned Governor Murrah of the situation: “It is my duty to advise you that your State, especially, in its Northern Section, is threatened with immediate invasion, that the means at my disposal are comparatively small and inadequate, and I urge upon you the necessity of putting immediately every armed man in Texas into the field.”[98]
In answer to this situation, drastic means were taken to force men into uniform. Shirkers were arrested and forced into military service, and troops detailed to non-combatant jobs were returned to active commands. Confederate regiments at guard positions in Texas were shifted to Louisiana, while defense of the Gulf ports was left to state soldiers.[99] In the meanwhile, Major General F. Steele and the Union forces in Arkansas pushed across the Little Missouri River to within two hundred miles of Banks, who had now secured Natchitoches, Louisiana. Then, on April 8, 1864, as Banks’ invaders occupied Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, and advanced to within three miles of Mansfield, Louisiana, General Taylor committed his forces in a desperate attempt to throw back the Federals. After a hard fought battle Banks’ army was defeated and compelled to retreat to Pleasant Hill. Taylor’s men retained close contact with the retreating Federals and after equally hard fighting on the second day, the Confederate commander could report that the Union troops were undertaking a night withdrawal to the Red River near Natchitoches. Later Southern reports claimed a Union rout on the first day and a definite check on enemy counter-attack on the second day.[100]
When Union prisoners captured in this fighting were asked what had caused their retreat, some of them claimed that it was “them ‘durned Texans’ hollerin’ that scared them.”[101] Texas troops especially enjoyed the capturing of
A regiment of New York Zouaves all dressed in red flannel trousers, looking somewhat like ladies’ bloomers of later times. They wore dainty red caps with tassels and made a sight for the Texans to look at, and when they were marching by and were halted, the Texas troops pretended to get mad, swore because they had been compelled to fight women. Some of them threw down their guns and declared that if they were to fight any more women they would go home. The Zouaves thought the Texas boys were in earnest and protested loudly that they were not women.[102]
Banks eventually withdrew to Alexandria, barely saving his fleet, which was almost stranded upstream by a sudden fall in the Red River.[103] Meanwhile, in late April, Price forced an enemy retreat in Arkansas. At Poison Springs, Marks’ Mill, and Jenkins’ Ferry, General Steele was repulsed and his command pressed northward. Thus, the overall Union plan to converge on Shreveport was frustrated and Kirby Smith’s men had victoriously repulsed overwhelming numbers.