Planting the Union Flag in Texas: The Campaigns of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks in the West

Ch9 The Advance to Alexandria

9Late in the afternoon of March 13, 1864, Banks’s cavalry under Brig. Gen. Albert L. Lee left the town of Franklin to begin the march to Alexandria. The last of Lee’s troopers did not depart until the morning of March 14. The column of cavalry, with its baggage train, stretched some nine miles along the road up Bayou Teche. As the last of the cavalry wagons got under way, Emory’s division of the XIX Corps moved into column behind them and started up the road toward Shreveport. Both Robert A. Cameron’s 3rd Division and Thomas E. G. Ransom’s 4th Division of the XIII Corps had by this time returned from the Texas coast and gone into camp at Franklin. There, on March 15, Ransom assumed command of the two divisions, and in an unusual assignment for a colonel, William Jennings Landram took command of the 4th Division. Under this new command structure the XIII Corps detachment followed Emory out of town, forming the rear of the column. General Franklin was in overall command of the troops. In support of Banks’s long-standing policy against the theft and destrucTheAdvancetoAlexandria The Red River below Natchitoches, Louisiana  chapter 9 tion of civilian property by the army, General Franklin issued specific orders March 16 forbidding private foraging. However, as described by one reviewer, “His usual orders against private foraging were, as usual, ignored.” As the march progressed, the foragers began to suffer some casualties, whether from disgruntled residents, freelance Jayhawkers, or Confederate stragglers competing for the spoils, and as a result the distaste of the soldiers for the local population grew. The men saw no reason to respect the private property of the local residents when “the flanks and rear of our army were constantly annoyed by these cowardly sneaks—men who had not the courage to enlist and fight like soldiers, but stood at their gates and bowed as the army passed, and then, seeking the cover of the brush, acted their mean contemptible part in the capture or killing of our men.” Some of the plantation houses flew the French flag and carried signs declaring “NEUTRALITY—FRENCH PROTECTION HERE.” Such efforts availed little, however, “for the boys showed their contempt for all such claims, by acts of wholesale destruction as they passed along.” Taylor watched as the two wings of the Union invasion advanced up the Red River and Bayou Teche. He could do little to obstruct their advance; however , he could and did see to it that all of the cotton he could find along the enemy’s route of travel was destroyed. He did this with great efficiency, and as a result the Yankees, “like the Israelites of old,” traveled in company with “a cloud (of smoke) by day, and a pillar of fire by night.” The Federal fleet arrived at Alexandria March 15 after the rebuilt Fort De Russy was captured and destroyed. As the lead boat, the Ouachita, steamed into view of the town, “the last of a fleet of transports passed over the falls.” The enemy troops had made good their escape and had saved all the river transportation they could. Because of the low water, one large ferryboat, the Countess, ran aground while trying to pass the falls and was burned by the retreating Confederates. Porter was forced to halt at Alexandria because “no reliable pilot could be procured to take our boats across the falls.” Thus, he remarked, “The transports will have to escape for the present, but are sure to be captured or destroyed before the month is over.” As the army transports tied up to the Alexandria docks and the Union men came ashore, they found a city that was uncertain of how to receive them. Many residents had left their homes and traveled with the retreating army, while others stayed indoors as the troops began wandering the streets. The departing Confederates had taken supplies, horses, and other material of potential use to an army, leaving little for the Yankees. Nevertheless, scavenging was the advance to alexandria  rampant. According to Thomas C. Manning, Governor Allen’s commissioner for Rapides Parish, Smith’s men were given the run of the town. “So soon as the men of General A. J. Smith landed from the boats, for a full twenty-four hours they were left free to do as they pleased, and well...