“By command of
“MAJOR-GENERAL BANKS. “Richard B. Irwin, “Assistant Adjutant-General.”
Several men of Company K got permission of Sergeant Johnson to forage, and went down the river on the twenty-eighth for the express purpose of pillage and plunder, returning next day with silver spoons and jewelry they had taken from a dwelling, whose owner promptly reported this case of burglary to General Grover. Lieutenant Gorham was ordered to parade his company in front of Grover’s headquarters, where the property owner identified Sergeant Baker, Corporal Bates, Privates E. G. Bacon, Luke Bowker, A. J. Thayer, E. M. Thayer and James Mins as connected with this affair. They were placed in arrest, sent to Algiers, and confined for twenty days before released from their dilemma with a reprimand, because they could give conclusive proof Orders No. 29 had not been promulgated to them.
Under orders to proceed to Alexandria the company and pontoon train left Barre’s Landing May 5th, with a column of troops under Grover, reaching Washington at half-past six in the evening, after a twelve-mile march, and remained over night. On the sixth, after a march of twenty-four miles over a rough road, a halt was made at a large sugar-house for the night. This was a tough day for the men; wagons broke through small bridges crossing ravines, had to be unloaded, bridges repaired, wagons repaired and reloaded, fences taken down to facilitate passing across plantations, and other innumerable vexatious accidents that make soldiers swear. On the seventh an early start was made; twenty miles marched before a halt for the night was made at a sugar-house two miles from Chanaville. On the eighth the march was continued to Carnell’s Plantation, sixteen miles from Alexandria, and on the ninth, after an early start, Company K reached Alexandria at noon. Nothing was done at this place except to guard a ferry across Red River, where forage parties, negroes and horses were constantly coming over.
Ordered to Simmsport, with troops destined to invest Port Hudson, the pontoon train again joined a column that left Alexandria May 13th, about two o’clock in the afternoon. Fourteen miles were marched that day; about twenty miles to Cheneyville on the fourteenth; eighteen miles to Evergreenville on the fifteenth; to Moreanville on the sixteenth, twelve miles from Simmsport. Simmsport was reached about noon on the seventeenth, after an average march of fifteen miles a day. Two pontoon rafts and an abutment were built next day for a part of the army to cross the Atchafalaya River to take transports at points on Red River for Port Hudson. The current was too strong and river too wide to permit the bridge to be used, and flatboats had to be brought into requisition. A portion of the troops marched to Morganza, on the Mississippi River, and took transports there.
Lieutenant Harding and Private Austin Hawes rejoined the company on the twenty-first to find the army had departed that day, leaving a guard over baggage and trains, that were moved as fast as transportation could be provided. It was on Sunday, the twenty-fourth, before Company K could proceed upon the steamer Forest Queen, arriving at Bayou Sara about ten o’clock the same night. The pontoon teams did not arrive until late in the evening of the twenty-fifth, when they were loaded, ready for an early start next morning.
The first assault on the enemy’s works at Port Hudson was arranged for May 27th. On the twenty-sixth Company K, with the pontoon train, started from Bayou Sara at four o’clock A.M., under orders to bridge Bayou Sandy (or Sandy Creek) on the Federal right. They arrived at two o’clock P.M., after a terrible hot and dusty march of sixteen miles. A light footbridge had been built over the bayou by pioneers, and one colored regiment was on the other side skirmishing with the enemy in a cool, collected manner. Work was at once commenced on a pontoon bridge two hundred and eighty feet long. Shot and shell from the Confederate works, less than a mile away, would occasionally fly over the heads of men at work, who ran for shelter when they could. The enemy’s infantry retired when the Thirty-Eighth Massachusetts Infantry and Eighteenth New York Battery put in an appearance. At night the Third and Fourth Regiments Louisiana (colored) Native Guards relieved the Thirty-Eighth and the battery. Everybody not obliged to be on picket or guard, slept through the night as only worn-out men can sleep, without a thought of the morrow, undisturbed by the continual boom from heavy guns fired by naval vessels bombarding the enemy.
Next day, Wednesday, at half-past five o’clock A.M., two negro regiments (First and Third Louisiana Native Guards), with other troops from Colonel Nelson’s brigade and two brass guns Sixth Massachusetts Battery, crossed both bridges to assault a redoubt. The battery-guns were handled in the road until withdrawn, with a loss of three horses killed and two men wounded. The infantry, with great bravery, pushed up close to the earthworks, where they found an overflow of water from the bayou a serious obstacle to success, and were obliged to retreat to cover of woods. One brave mulatto officer was left dead in the water near the redoubt. Five ineffectual advances through this water were made by Nelson’s colored brigade to scale a high bluff on which the redoubt stood, suffering heavily (about four hundred in killed and wounded), before approaches could be commenced on advanced ground that was gained and held. A cavalry detachment arrived late in the afternoon, dismounted and skirmished forward without any result. On their return an orderly-sergeant was killed while recrossing the bridge. During the day shells from the enemy came fast, and were exploding lively among the tree tops about Sandy Creek, where Company K remained as a bridge-guard. The enemy had the range, but could not depress their guns to make shot do any execution.
Corporals Lovegrove, Alden and a private were stationed at night on the exposed end to cut the lashings, so the bridge could be swung to the other shore by guy ropes, in case the enemy came down in force. The men not on guard slept in sheltered places, behind trees, anywhere to escape from shells fired by the enemy throughout the night. Early in the evening Lovegrove picked out a place, spread his blanket and was about to lie down when a shell went under his temporary sleeping bunk without exploding.
In this general assault of May 27th the following (nine months) Massachusetts troops were engaged at various points on the lines, with credit to themselves: