History of the Nineteenth Army Corps

by Richard B. Irwin

(4) As evidence of the considerate manner in which these gentlemen were treated, see the interesting article, "Plain Living on Johnson's Island," by Lieutenant Horace Carpenter, 4th Louisiana, printed in the Century for March, 1891, page 706.

CHAPTER XIX. HARROWING LA FOURCHE.

It will be remembered that when Banks marched to Opelousas, Taylor's little army, greatly depleted by wholesale desertion and hourly wearing away by the roadside, broke into two fragments, the main body of the cavalry retiring, under Mouton, toward the Sabine, while the remainder of the troops were conducted by Taylor himself toward Alexandria and at last to Natchitoches. As soon as Kirby Smith became aware that his adversary was advancing to the Red River, he prepared to meet the menace by concentrating on Shreveport the whole available force of the Confederacy in the Trans-Mississippi from Texas to Missouri, numbering, according to his own estimate, 18,000 effectives. He accordingly called on Magruder for two brigades and drew in from the line of the Arkansas the division of John G. Walker. However, this concentration became unnecessary and was given up the instant Smith learned that Banks had crossed the Atchafalaya and the Mississippi and had sat down before Port Hudson.

While this movement was in progress, Walker was on the march toward Natchitoches or Alexandria, by varying routes, according as the plans changed to suit the news of the day. Taylor observed Banks and followed his march to Simmesport, while Mouton hung upon the rear and flank of Chickering's column, guarding the big wagon-train and the spoils of the Teche campaign.

Then Kirby Smith, not caring as yet to venture across the Atchafalaya, ordered Taylor to take Walker's division back into Northern Louisiana and try to break up Grant's campaign by interrupting his communications opposite Vicksburg; but this attempt turned out badly, for Grant had already given up his communications on the west bank of the Mississippi and restored them on the east, and Taylor's forces, after passing from Lake Catahoula by Little River into the Tensas, ascending that stream to the neighborhood of Richmond and occupying that town on the 3d of May, were roughly handled on the 7th in an ill-judged attempt to take Young's Point and Milliken's Bend. Then, leaving Walker with orders to do what damage he could along the river bank—which was not much—and, if possible, as it was not, to throw supplies of beef and corn into Vicksburg, Taylor went back to Alexandria and prepared for his campaign in La Fourche, from which Kirby Smith's superior orders had diverted him. Meanwhile nearly a month had passed and Walker, after coming down to the Red River, a week too late, was once more out of reach.

Taylor's plan was for Major, with his brigade of cavalry, to cross the Atchafalaya at Morgan's Ferry, while Taylor himself, with the main body under Mouton, should attempt the surprise and capture of Brashear: then, if successful, the whole army could be thrown into La Fourche, while in case of failure Major could easily return by the way he came.

Major left Washington on the 10th of June, marched twenty-eight miles to Morgan's Ferry, by a road then high and dry although in April Banks had found it under water, and crossing the Atchafalaya on the 14th rode along the Bayou Fordoche with the intention of striking the river at the Hermitage; but a broken bridge turned him northward round the sweep of False River toward Waterloo. Sage was at False Point with six companies of his 110th New York, a squadron of the 2d Rhode Island cavalry, and a section of Carruth's battery. As soon as he found the enemy approaching in some force he moved down the levee to the cover of the lower fleet and thus lost the chance of gaining and giving timely notice of Major's operation. Major on his part rode off by the Grosstête through Plaquemine, as already related, and so down the Mississippi to Donaldsonville, having passed on the way three garrisons without being seen by any one on board. Making a feint on Fort Butler, Major, under cover of the night, took the cut-off road and struck the Bayou La Fourche six miles below Donaldsonville; thence he rode on to Thibodeaux, entering the town at daylight on the 21st of June. At Thibodeaux Major picked up all the Union soldiers in the place to the number of about 100, mostly convalescents.

Soon after taking command in New Orleans, Emory had begun to look forward to what might happen in La Fourche, as well as to the possible consequences to New Orleans itself. The forces in the district were the 23d Connecticut, Colonel Charles E. L. Holmes, and the 176th New York, Colonel Charles C. Nott, both regiments scattered along the railroad for its protection, Company F and some odd men and recruits of the 1st Indiana, under Captain F. W. Noblett, occupying the field works at Brashear, and two companies of the 28th Maine at Fort Butler. About this time Holmes, who as the senior colonel had commanded the district since Weitzel quitted it to enter on the Teche campaign, resigned on account of ill-health. Nott and Wordin, the lieutenant-colonel of the 23d, were on the sick-list. Finding the country thus feebly occupied and the service yet more feebly performed, as early as the 7th of June, Emory had chosen a very intelligent and spirited young officer of the 47th Massachusetts, Lieutenant-Colonel Albert Stickney, placed him in command of the district, without regard to rank, and sent him over the line to Brashear to put things straight. In this work Stickney was engaged, when, at daylight on the morning of the 20th of June, he received a telegram from Emory conveying the news that the Confederates were advancing on La Fourche Crossing; so he left Major Anthony, of the 2d Rhode Island cavalry, in command at Brashear and went to the point where the danger threatened. When, on the afternoon of the 21st of June, the Confederate force drew near, Stickney found himself in command of a medley of 838 men belonging to eight different organizations—namely, 195 of the 23d Connecticut, 154 of the 176th New York, 46 of the 42d Massachusetts, 37 of the 26th Maine, 306 of the 26th Massachusetts, 50 troopers of the 1st Louisiana cavalry, 20 artillerymen, chiefly of the 1st Indiana, and one section, with 30 men, of Grow's 25th New York battery.

The levee at this point was about twelve feet high, forming a natural fortification, which Stickney took advantage of and strengthened by throwing up slight rifle-pits on his flanks. These had only been carried a few yards, and were nowhere more than two feet high, when, about seven o'clock in the evening, under cover of the darkness, Major attacked. The attack was led by Pyron's regiment, reported by Major as 206 strong, and was received and thrown off by about three quarters of Stickney's force. For this result the credit is largely due to the gallantry and good judgment of Major Morgan Morgan, Jr., of the 176th New York, and the steadiness of his men, inspired by his example. Grow's guns being separated and one of them without support, this piece was abandoned by its gunners and fell for the moment into the hands of the Confederates; the other piece, placed by Grow himself to protect the flank, poured an effective enfilade fire upon Pyron's column.

Stickney's loss was 8 killed and 41 wounded, including Lieutenant Starr, of the 23d Connecticut, whose hurt proved mortal. The Confederate loss is not reported, but Stickney says he counted 53 of their dead on the field, and afterward found nearly 60 wounded in the hospitals at Thibodeaux. The next morning, June 22d, their dead and wounded were removed under a flag of truce.(1)