Two accidents happened that, for a short time in March, left the company without a commissioned officer. Lieutenant Harding, kicked by a horse about a week previous, had to go into hospital March 1st, on account of the injury. In the afternoon Lieutenant Gorham was thrown, his horse fell upon him, and he was insensible until taken to the St. James Hospital next day. He returned to duty March 9th, in season to command the company ordered to Baton Rouge with the pontoons on March 10th. They went up river upon the steamer Eastern Queen and arrived at Baton Rouge March 11th at three o’clock P.M., going into camp about half a mile from the river.
All signs pointed to a forward movement by the large body of troops massed at this place, commanded by General Banks in person. Great activity was observed on board naval vessels, which caused the men to understand they were about to do active field duty and gain some practical knowledge how to use pontoon bridges for service. Early on the twelfth the pontoon train was marched to Bayou Montesino, five miles from Baton Rouge, and the men commenced to throw a bridge seventy-seven feet long across this bayou. Picket lines were established some two miles in front until next morning, when the Forty-Eighth Massachusetts and Second Louisiana Infantry, with unattached Massachusetts cavalry companies, commanded by Captains Godfrey and Magee, were sent up river on transports to Springfield Landing, proceeding to the junction of Springfield Landing and Bayou Sara roads, driving in Confederate pickets and clearing the roads down to where the bridge was thrown. At night, work was suspended, but Company K kept on the alert, as pickets were firing throughout the night and alarms frequent; the men were formed into line three times, ready for a defence of the bridge. By noon of the thirteenth all was made ready, and at night troops commenced to cross on the advance towards Port Hudson.
The men remained on duty at their bridge until the seventeenth, with the Forty-Ninth Massachusetts Infantry on guard for a part of the time, witnessing the constant movement of troops, accompanied by baggage trains, and listening to the guns from the fleet while Admiral Farragut succeeded in pushing two gunboats past Port Hudson batteries March 14th. The retrograde march towards Baton Rouge commenced on the fifteenth, a rainy day, and on the seventeenth Company K commenced to take up, load their bridge upon wagons and go in the same direction, ordered to accompany the Third Brigade, First Division, Colonel N. A. M. Dudley in command, under orders to reconnoitre the west bank of the river.
On the eighteenth teams went to the levee and remained until five a.m. the next day (all hands sleeping upon the levee), when they embarked on the Sallie Robinson and proceeded to within five miles of Port Hudson, landing in the afternoon at Hunter’s Plantation. The brigade foraged, scouted, and opened communication with Farragut, while naval vessels below Port Hudson kept the Confederate steamers well under the protection of their own forts. Without having to make any use of the pontoons, the brigade returned to Baton Rouge on the afternoon of March 22d, and Company K left the next day, still upon the Sallie Robinson, for New Orleans, where they arrived on the twenty-fourth at four P.M., and marched immediately, with their train, to Shippers’ Cotton Press. Several men were taken sick from exposure to damp atmosphere at night, which almost penetrated their blankets as they slept upon the river bank.
For two weeks the company was kept busy in making alterations in the pontoons, found necessary during the short service they had seen, preparatory to moving with the army, about to commence a campaign in Western Louisiana towards Red River.
Hospital-Steward Charles J. Wood was detached from the regiment March 31st, by Department special orders, and joined April 3d, to act as medical-officer. First-Sergeant J. Gilbert Hill and Sergeant William H. Shepard were detached, by Department special orders, March 26th, and ordered to Baton Rouge to report to Captain Justin Hodge, assistant-quartermaster, on recruiting service for the First Louisiana Engineers, colored troops. They afterwards received commissions as first- and second-lieutenants. The following sick men were sent to hospitals: Sergeant George L. Johnson to St. James Hospital in New Orleans; Privates W. J. Bacon, C. B. Bacon, Samuel Johnson and S. M. Stafford to the regimental hospital at Gentilly Bayou.
Preliminary movements of troops were in progress as follows: the Second Brigade, First Division, under General Weitzel, had advanced to Brashear City from Bayou Bœuff April 2d; the Third and Fourth Divisions were en-route from Baton Rouge by transports to Algiers, thence by rail, a portion marching from Donaldsonville via Thibodeaux, when orders were received by Company K, April 5th, to move with the pontoons. At eight o’clock P.M. next day, the detachment took cars at Algiers for Brashear City, where they arrived early next morning. The bridge was unloaded, piled compactly near the track, and tents pitched close at hand.
Weitzel’s brigade was transported across the river to Berwick on the ninth, and the Third Division followed as fast as limited facilities at hand would admit, occupying two days in crossing. The bridge was put together about a mile from camp, below the city, on the ninth, using all of the material, that made a bridge two hundred and eighty-seven and ten-twelfths feet long. This took an entire day, and completely tired out everybody. Next day an attempt was made to tow this pontoon bridge to Bayou Teche, but the tide proved too strong for a tug-boat, and the steamer St. Mary’s was called on to render assistance, and then the Sykes had to assist before it could be moved and brought up to the railroad wharf at Brashear. This day was lost. The Sykes, at two P.M. on the eleventh, took the bridge in tow, with all hands upon it, bound for Pattersonville, three miles above Brashear. After a hard pull, obliged once to make fast to the shore, the bridge reached Pattersonville in the evening and remained all night. The men remained upon it, in readiness to obey any orders. On the twelfth the bridge was thrown across the bayou, and one infantry regiment, one cavalry company and five artillery guns crossed over. While at work Company K was fired on, and seven men were thrown forward to ascertain if a force was in the vicinity; a small guard was found, who beat a hasty retreat. Lieutenant Harding, with a boat’s crew, went up river at night for orders; Lieutenant Gorham, left in command, tried to execute an order to bring up the bridge to a spot about three miles from his position, where a bridge was destroyed by the enemy, but the captains of steamers Sykes and Smith thought it unsafe to try it, and the bridge was not towed up until next day, the thirteenth, when it was placed in position about three-quarters of a mile from the battle-field. Gorham was placed in arrest by Major Houston for the delay, and released and ordered to duty on the fifteenth, as it was not his fault.
The Third (Emory’s) Division, the Second (Weitzel’s) Brigade, First Division, advanced to Pattersonville, threw out pickets, and went into bivouac on the eleventh. The enemy was posted behind breastworks on the Bisland Plantation, about four miles above Pattersonville. On their left were six hundred men, with six guns, defending the ground from Grand Lake to the bayou. The gunboat Diana defended the bayou main road, and there were two 24 Pr. guns in position upon the bank, on their right, to assist the Diana. Sixteen hundred men, with twelve guns, held the line of their right to a railway embankment, where General Green was posted with his dismounted men.
After this position was reconnoitred on the twelfth, with skirmishing and considerable artillery firing in the afternoon, an advance on the enemy was made about ten A.M. April 13th, by a strong line of skirmishers, supported by artillery. No attempt was made to assault. This movement on the enemy was evidently made to occupy their attention until Grover’s division could gain the roads in their rear at Franklin. At noon the gunboat Clifton pushed up river to aid the troops, until she ran afoul of a torpedo. For fear of being blown up by these machines, she anchored until afternoon, and then commenced to throw shot and shell dangerously near the Federal troops. This was soon stopped, for the Clifton was not in a proper place to render any service. The bridge was in constant use during the day, soldiers and ambulances crossing and recrossing. The company remained under arms, on guard, until the fourteenth, squads of men going up river in small boats to witness the army movements on the twelfth and thirteenth, collect small boats and carry orders. The enemy retreated to Franklin on the fourteenth, after destroying their one gunboat on the bayou (the Diana), to escape a threatened rear attack by Grover’s fourth division, that had by way of Grand Lake, on transports, effected a landing with difficulty near Hutchin’s Point, not far from Franklin, and advanced to the Bayou Teche.