Art. 3. All private property of officers and enlisted men shall be respected, and left to their respective owners.
Art. 4. The position of Port Hudson shall be occupied to-morrow, at 7 o’clock A. M., by the forces of the United States, and its garrison received as prisoners of war by such general officers of the United States service as may be designated by Major-General Banks, with the ordinary formalities of rendition. The Confederate troops will be drawn up in line, officers in their positions, the right of the line resting on the edge of the prairie south of the railroad depot; the left extending in the direction of the village of Port Hudson. The arms and colors will be piled conveniently, and will be received by the officers of the United States.
Art. 5. The sick and wounded of the garrison will be cared for by the authorities of the United States, assisted if desired by either party, by the medical officers of the garrison.
The formal surrender was made on the 9th of July. General Andrews, Chief-of-Staff of General Banks, with Colonel Birge leading his column, followed by two picked regiments from each division, with Holcombe’s and Rowle’s batteries of light artillery, and the gunners of the naval battery, entered the fortifications. The enemy were drawn up in line, with their officers in front of them, on one side of the road, with their backs to the river. The Federal troops were drawn up in two lines on the opposite side of the road, with their officers in front of them. General Gardner then advanced, and offered to surrender his sword with Port Hudson. In appreciation of his bravery, he was desired to retain it. He then said: “General, I will now formally surrender my command to you, and for that purpose will give the order to ground arms.” The order was given, and the arms grounded. The surrender comprised, besides the position, more than six thousand two hundred and thirty-three prisoners, fifty-one pieces of artillery, two steamers, four thousand four hundred pounds of canon powder, five thousand small arms, and one hundred and fifty thousand rounds of ammunition. The loss of General Banks from the twenty-third to the thirtieth of May was about one thousand. The village of Port Hudson consisted of a few houses and a small church, which had been nearly destroyed by the cannonade. The wounded and sick of the garrison suffered most from want of medical stores. The provisions of the garrison were nearly exhausted.
A short period of inactivity succeeded the heavy campaign of General Banks’s army, which culminated in the capture of Port Hudson, on the 9th of July, 1863. But the plans of the commanding officers were maturing for new expeditions, in more remote regions, where the flag of rebellion was still floating defiantly, and where the machinations of European powers were striving covertly to give aid to the Confederate cause, and to establish an unfriendly Government on the Federal confines, if not on American soil.
Rear-Admiral David D. Porter arrived at New Orleans on the 1st of August, 1863, and resumed command of the gunboats on the Mississippi. About the same time Major-General Franklin, formerly a corps commander in the Army of the Potomac, arrived at the same place, and reported for duty.
A naval expedition to the mouth of the Sabine river, in Texas, was undertaken by General Banks, who dispatched General Franklin with four thousand men in four army transports, to capture the forts at Sabine Pass, at the mouth of the river, which forms the boundary line between Texas and Louisiana. The armed steamers employed were the Clifton, Sachem, Arizona, and Granite City, and the naval forces were commanded by Lieutenant Crocker.
Early on the morning of September 8th, the Clifton stood in the bay and opened on the fort, to which no reply was made. At 9 A. M. the Sachem, Arizona, and Granite City, followed by the transports, stood over the bar, and, with much difficulty, owing to the low water, reached an anchorage about two miles from the fort at 11 A. M. About the middle of the afternoon the Sachem, followed by the Arizona, advanced up the eastern channel to draw the fire of the forts, while the Clifton advanced up the western channel. The Granite City remained to cover the landing of a division of troops under General Weitzel. No reply was made to the fire of the gunboats until they were abreast of the forts, when eight guns opened fire upon them. Three of these were rifled. Almost at the same moment the Clifton and Sachem were struck in their boilers and both vessels enveloped in steam. The Arizona, not having room to pass the Sachem, then backed down the channel until she grounded by the stern, when the ebb-tide caught her bows and swung her across the channel. White flags were raised on the Clifton and Sachem, and within twenty minutes they were taken in tow by the enemy. The naval force of the expedition being thus disabled, the transports moved out of the bay. The Arizona was got afloat during the night, and followed. The expedition then returned to Brashear City. The officers and crews of the Clifton and Sachem, and about ninety sharpshooters who were on board were captured, and the loss in killed and wounded was about thirty. After remaining at Brashear City some time, the military force moved to Franklin and Vermillionville.
On the 27th of October an expedition under General Banks put to sea from New Orleans. It consisted of about twenty vessels, accompanied by the gunboats Owasco, Virginia, and Monongahela, which sailed to the mouth of the Rio Grande river, the boundary between Texas and Mexico. Brownsville was occupied by Federal troops, which did much to check the designs of the French Emperor. An American army was now placed on the frontier, prepared to check any open demonstration of sympathy between the armies of Davis and Napoleon.