Greyhound Commander: Confederate General John G. Walker's History of the Civil War West of the Mississippi

CHAPTER 3. Military Operations West of the Mississippi during the Year 1864

ChaPter 3. Military Operations West of the Mississippi during the Year 1864 To enable the reader more clearly to understand what follows it will [be] useful to bear in mind the strength and relative situation of the Federal and Confederate armies at the opening of the season for active operations in the Spring of ’64. As has already been said Gen. Franklin [should be Frederick] Steele occupied Little Rock and the valley of the Arkansas, and, of course, the whole country north of that river, with a force of about twelve thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred cavalry. Gen. Price, commanding the Confederate forces in that State, with six thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, occupied the line of the Ouachita River, drawing his supplies from the valley of the Red River and the lower Ouachita. The main Federal army of the South west under Gen. Banks was concentrated at New Orleans, with outpost garrisons as far west on the Gulf of Mexico as Berwick’s Bay, and north as Plaquimine [sic], on the Mississippi.1 During the winter of 1863–4 it became known to the Confederates that heavy reinforcements were descending the Mississippi to New Orleans, and that that city was the scene of preparations on a grand scale for the campaign of the Spring. But whether Texas, or Louisiana, was to be the theatre of war could only be conjectured. The Confederate commander in western La. [Richard Taylor], however, was well convinced that Banks’ attempt of the previous year would be repeated, and the rich valley of the Red River was the coveted prize. This conjecture, however, met with an appar1 . Berwick Bay, eighty air miles southwest of New Orleans, connected Brashear City to the Gulf of Mexico. Plaquemine is eighty air miles northwest (upriver) from New Orleans. Once again, it appears that Walker was not fully aware of the Federal army-navy operation in late 1863 that placed U.S. Army garrisons along the lower Texas coast down to the Rio Grande. See Townsend, Yankee Invasion of Texas. 84 Operations West of the Mississippi, 1864 � 85 ent contradiction in the month of January when a numerous fleet of armed vessels and transports appeared off the coast of Texas, west of Matagorda Bay [on the Texas coast, about 100 miles southwest of Houston], and landed a force of ten thousand men under Gen. Heron, which, except the capture of the small fort Esperanza, at the entrance of Matagorda Bay, effected nothing, and after a stay of some two weeks at Lavaca, Indianola, and on the peninsular formed by Matorga [sic] Bay and the Gulf, like the expedition of the year before under Franklin, re-embarked and returned to New Orleans.2 This movement upon Texas, however, made it necessary to strengthen the Confederate forces under Gen. Magruder in that State, and the whole of the Texas cavalry under Gen. Green marched hastily from Western La. for that purpose. If the valley of Red River was to be the scene of the Federal operations it was evident that the naval forces on the Mississippi would bear an important part. Therefore, early in the winter, the attention of Gen. Taylor was seriously directed to the erection of such fortifications on its banks, and the placing of such obstructions in the channel of Red River as his limited means afforded. The point selected for this purpose was about fifty miles from the confluence of that river and the Mississippi, and twenty miles [upstream] from the mouth of Black or Ouichita [Ouachita].3 The immediate topography of this point known as Fort De Russy was most unfavorable for its successful defense, being commanded by a range of hills too extensive to be held by a force of less than ten thousand men, and which once in the possession of the enemy rendered Fort De Russy untenable.4 The obstructions [in the river] which should 2. Walker, with no personal knowledge of the war along the Texas coast, again confused two different operations around Matagorda Bay. A small U.S. naval force briefly captured the fort, seventy-five air miles northeast of Corpus Christi on the Texas coast, in October 1862 and then quickly abandoned it. A larger infantry operation, in November 1863, captured the installation and held it until June 1864. In neither case was Federal Major General Francis J. Herron involved. See Townsend, Yankee Invasion of Texas, 28–31; Arnold, “Fort Esperanza .” 3. The defensive work Walker referred to...