USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 45
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At eight in the morning, Banks formed double line of bat- tle with fifteen thousand men, Emory thrown forward, Smith forming the main line.
The Rebels, twenty-two thousand strong, and more cau- tious than on the preceding evening, came up slowly, so slowly that it seemed doubtful whether they would make an attack, and Banks sent the most of his cavalry, a black brig- ade and the fragments of Ransom's division toward Grand
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
Ecore, with his wagons and heavy artillery. A single cav- alry brigade which he retained, he sent out to reconnoitre. It returned in haste and so hardly pressed as to show that the enemy intended battle. Emory's batteries opened. Un- der their fire his brigades advanced; but they receded slowly and stubbornly before the heavy fire and march of the enemy. Smith's line stood unflinching, until the fire was close, when Mower moved out in counter charge, and Emory, rapidly re- forming, advanced to the right. The Rebel column hesi- tated, halted, broke and fled.
The following report of Lieutenant Colonel Craven, some- what curtailed, narrates the part taken by the Eighty-Ninth: "April 9, was fought the important and well-contested bat- tle of Pleasant Hill.
"The command of General A. J. Smith had marched on the eighth from Double Bridges, a distance of fifteen miles, and owing to a late start, arrived at camp, in the vicinity of Pleasant Hill, after night. At two o'clock the next morning, the troops were called up. Scarcely had the camp become cheerful with lights from the burning of dry pine and cypress lumber when an order was received to put out the lights. When all was enveloped in darkness, it was whispered among groups of officers that the advance of our army under General Banks, had been defeated, repulsed and driven in confusion from the field at Sabine Cross Roads, near Mans- field, in an engagement the evening previous. Officers were charged to keep it from the men, lest a panic might seize the command. But secresy was impossible; the straggling and broken ranks of the advance were in a confused retreat, pass- ing through our camp, and giving to every one who would lend a listening ear, the sad intelligence of defeat. Too fre- quently the troops thus straggling were without arms, knap- sacks, haversacks, or anything of the kind, seeming desirous only of making good their retreat. They vied with each other in their efforts to describe the terrible carnage and slaughter of the action. It is but justice to say that the news was brought by stragglers who were probably the first to break the ranks during the fight, and hence, in the fruitful- ness of their imaginations, no doubt had much exaggerated
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THE EIGHTY-NINTH.
the character of the defeat. They were lost from their offi- cers and their commands, and in that manner they continued to come through the camps till long after daylight, each leav- ing the impression that the disaster had been terrible, and too frequently admonishing the men in General Smith's com- mand that they had better get out of the way; that it was useless to think of standing.
"About seven in the morning, Smith's command moved up to Pleasant Hill. About ten, it was put into position to re- ceive the enemy. The Eighty-Ninth was posted in the front line, with instructions not to move nor to fire a gun without order. With the First Vermont battery on our left, and the Third Indiana battery on our right, and supported by two lines of battle in our rear, for long hours we rested, waiting the approach of the enemy.
" The day was clear and rather cool. Quiet, with some anxiety of feeling, was the order of things. But for the sound of arms in the distance, as the enemy pressed the rear of the retreating columns, the day would have been ex- ceedingly monotonous. The Nineteenth corps was gradu- ally falling back, disputing the ground with the Rebel ad- vance.
"At three in the afternoon, the troops might have been heard asking, 'Have the Rebs fallen back?' 'Think they're going to make an attack to-day?' But about five the skirm- ishing revived and gradually increased; the sound of artil- lery began to greet the ear; but so gradual was the Rebel advance that still the troops lay in line of battle, gazing quietly upon the explosion of Rebel shells between our lines and the setting sun. The beauty of the scene was of short duration, for soon again the woods in our front rang with volleys of musketry and a well-directed artillery fire threat- ened our ranks.
" Private James Rader, of company D, was wounded at the time, while in line of battle, and an ambulance sent for, and he was taken to the rear. The First Vermont battery opened a brisk fire on a Rebel battery; still we waited in suspense, the Minie balls and the grape and canister passing frequently over the regiment as it lay in line of battle, when
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
.
suddenly General Mower, on horseback, came dashing along in front of the left wing of the regiment. Some officers commanded Forward, some Halt. Confusion seemed for a moment to be inevitable; I was occupying a position on the right centre and to the rear of the right wing of the regi- ment. I inquired of the General, if he wanted us to go forward; in the din of the battle, I could not hear his an- swer, but from the motion of his head and sword, he was no longer to be misunderstood. Forward was the order. The right moved in good order. A part of the left having pre- viously started, the line was irregular. To our front, at a distance of some four or five hundred yards, could be seen a confused line of troops rapidly falling back-it was the rear of the Nineteenth corps-followed by a strong Rebel force pouring in a terrible musketry fire, accompanied with whoops and yells of triumph. A portion of our regiment opened fire, but seeing that our troops had not yet cleared our front, I ordered the firing to cease, halted the regiment, and in a very short time the line was dressed in fine order, discharged pieces were reloaded, and when our front was cleared of Union troops who bore out to our right, at the command fire, the regiment poured forth a splendid volley, with telling effect upon the Rebels then advancing rapidly and in good order, at a distance of about three hundred yards. The first volley checked their advance, a second one staggered them, when the regiment moved forward, keeping up a splendid fire. As we advanced, the enemy commenced falling back, and we rapidly charged him till near a ravine in the open field, some five or six hundred yards or more, in front of our first line of battle. The ravine was lined with bushes and briars, forming a dense under-growth, behind which, in many places, a man could not be seen. I heard in a loud voice, 'halt!' I thought it was the voice of Colonel Murray, and repeated the command. The regiment halted, and was ordered to lie down. Colonel Murray was not mounted, and I did not see him. I had not previously heard a com- mand from him, though he might have given many without my hearing them, for the din of battle was great.
"Immediately a terrible fire from the ravine, which formed
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BATTLE OF PLEASANT HILL.
a complete breastwork for the Rebels-being four or five feet deep-began to be poured into our ranks. I cast my eye down the line. I did not see Colonel Murray nor any other officer that outranked me. It was no time for hesi- taney. I rode to the centre of the regiment and inquired, 'Why are we lying here in the open field, while the Rebels are in ambush in that ravine?' Receiving no answer, I rode through the line, and commanded, Forward. The men sprang instantly to their feet, and with a yell rushed into the ravine, killing and capturing the enemy. We gathered up and sent to the rear about a hundred and fifty prisoners.
"I again ordered the regiment into line of battle, and marched out with it across the open ground, between the ravine in the field and the woods on the west side of the field, entered the woods and marched to the crest of the hill, a distance through the woods of about seventy-five or a hundred yards, there halted, and finding no enemy in front, and not knowing that any of our troops were advancing on either flank of our regiment, I rode back to the field. I there found Colonel Murray, who advised me to bring the regiment back to the open field. I rode out again, about- faced the regiment, and marched it back.
" Then Brigadier General Stone, Chief on General Banks' staff, paid the command a high compliment, and said that we had driven the enemy entirely from our front; 'but,' said he, 'we must make good the advantages we have gained; the Rebels are massing on our right, and I want you to move the regiment round to the right, and take a position there where you can support them if they need it.' I moved the regiment in obedience to his instructions. The men were there ordered to lie down. It was now sundown, and they remained in that position, with Minie balls constantly pass- ing over them, but without injury to any one, till night spread her curtain of darkness over the belligerents, and put a stop to the contest. The enemy retired, leaving our army mas- ter of the entire field.
"Shortly after dark, our regiment, along with other troops of the First brigade, was marched down the road to the 34
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
south-west, a distance of about a mile from the closing scene of the battle. We rested on our arms. The men suffered much from the coldness of the night, being wet with sweat from the labors of the battle. The night was rendered more hideous by the groans of wounded and dying men, still lying upon the battle field unprovided for.
"At three o'clock in the morning we were ordered up, and commenced marching in retreat, leaving our seriously wounded in hospital in charge of surgeons, and our dead upon the field. Captain Gifford, with his company, had been sent out on picket, and by some bad management had not been relieved, and hence remained at his post till he learned the next morning that the command was falling back, when he followed, joining us about three o'clock in the after- noon. Officers and enlisted men generally behaved them- selves well during the engagement. Captain Farlow S. Zeek fell, seriously wounded in both feet, while in command of his company at the ravine."
The Third Indiana battery was on the right of the Eighty- Ninth regiment. The Ninth battery was on the right of the Third. "The Ninth Indiana battery," says Colonel Lynch, in his report, "at the beginning of the engagement, although in the finest position on the field, was completely inasked by Battery L, First United States artillery, consequently could not be used until late in the engagement, at which time it made some very fine shots, dismounting one of the enemy's guns, and totally silencing the remaining guns of the battery. Captain George R. Brown proved himself a capable, cool and gallant officer."
During the battle private Hubbard, of the Sixteenth, killed two color guards, and captured the colors and color bearer of a Texas regiment.
The dead and wounded were abandoned on the field, the cruel necessity being excused if not enforced by a scarcity of water, and the distance to which the provision trains had moved. The retreat continued through the night. Several days were spent at Grand Ecore, waiting for the fleet, which was sixty or seventy miles further up the river, and in start- ing it down the nowy shallow and snaggy stream,
531
DELAY AT ALEXANDRIA.
A strong Rebel force took advantage of the delay by post- ing itself across Banks' route at Cane river, forty miles dis- tant, while another prepared to co-operate by an attack on his rear, simultaneously with the attack of the first on his front. The scheme was rendered abortive by the sudden and swift march of Banks. He started at two in the morn- ing of April 22, and with Emory in front and Smith in the rear, marched thirty miles. Early the next morning Emory struck the Rebel force at the crossing of Cane river unex- pectedly on front and flank, and drove it in disorder from the position. At a later hour Smith repulsed a charge on the rear. Marching hard, fighting the enemy in front and fighting him in rear, the army reached Alexandria on the twenty-seventh of April. Reinforcements at the same time made their appearance, the First division of the Thirteenth corps, under McClernand, from the Texan coast, and veteran regiments from the north. ' With the first were our Forty- Ninth and Sixty-Ninth; among the last was our Forty-Sev- enth.
The army remained nearly three weeks at Alexandria, dur- ing which the enemy was active and vindictive, and required the constant attention of scouting and skirmishing parties. On one occasion the Thirteenth corps marched eight miles west, pushing back Rebel sharpshooters and batteries, and as the force of the enemy became more solid, charging on him. One charge was made across an open field, and through thick hedges. Chaplain Sawyer speaks with pride of the Forty-Seventh in this affair: "Whether in the skir- mish line, in making a charge, or under fire of musketry or cannon, the men conducted themselves most gallantly. As I was dismounted, after attending to the wounded, I took the gun and accoutrements of one of their number, marched with the column, and occasionally with the skirmishers, where I had a full view of the enemy. The first day we were or- dered to drive the Rebels, the skirmishers were pushed ahead to charge through the woods. The Twenty-Eighth held back, but the Forty-Seventh boys raised a shout, and dashed into the woods, while the Rebels ran helter-skelter for dear life. As the main column followed, a shell, in direct range
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
of us, struck the side of a tree, glanced up, and burst above us, scattering splinters and fragments all round us. Not a man was hurt, and the regiment, inspired by the coolness of Colonel Mclaughlin, in front of whom the shell burst, stepped briskly on. The Rebel cannon was soon in full re- treat. Colonel Slack handled his brigade splendidly. His clear, commanding voice rang over the field."
May 7, General Mower led a part of his division, with Lucas' cavalry, toward Bayou La Moore, and engaged a threatening force, the Eighty-Ninth Indiana, under Colonel Craven, charging and repulsing it with a loss of fifteen.
The delay at Alexandria was caused by the difficulty of getting the fleet over the falls of the Red. Under the direc- tion of Colonel Bailey, engineer of the Nineteenth corps, the troops constructed a series of dams. The labor, together with scouting and reconnoitring, employed them night and day. They were gratified by complete success. The last boat rode triumphantly over the falls the twelfth of May. The next day Lucas' brigade, which had hitherto been in the rear, took the advance, and the army marched out of Alexandria, leaving it in flames, though by whom the incen- diary fires were kindled was unknown.
Near Marksville a Rebel cavalry force appeared in front of the column. It fell back, fighting, across a prairie, and made a stubborn stand in a wood. After three hours skir- mishing and artillery fighting it was flanked on the right by Emory, and on the left by Smith, and driven and scattered. At Fort De Russey Banks found a reinforcement from Baton Rouge.
May 19, the van crossed the Atchafalaya on a bridge of boats, while the rear sharply engaged a Rebel force, under General Polignac. Lynch's brigade crossed Yellow Bayou before noon, and after moving a mile on the double-quick, formed in line of battle under the enemy's guns, the Eighty- Ninth in the centre, supporting Brown's battery, except Hill's company, which, in the skirmish line, held the enemy in check. The battery was a mark for the enemy's guns. They plowed up the ground about it, and cut off the limbs of the oak above it, until Mower's two brigades, at full speed, and
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FIGHT ON YELLOW BAYOU.
with fixed bayonets, forced them to withdraw. As Mower fell back, Company I, of the Eighty-Ninth, covered the rear, and protected the soldiers who gathered up the dead and the wounded. One of the dead was Captain Gifford, who was an honest, modest and brave gentleman. He had been instantly killed by a ball through the heart. Colonel Lynch. was wounded and carried off the field. Colonel Kinney, the next in rank, was also wounded. The command of the brigade devolved, in consequence, upon Lieutenant Colonel Craven, and the care of the regiment upon Major Henry. The line was reformed behind thick underbrush, where the troops rested before renewing the struggle. The day was excessively hot, and many had fallen from the heat. When they again advanced it was with a sudden rush. The enemy withstood them stubbornly. The two lines frequently inter- mixed. The fight was often hand to hand. Henry Myers, the gallant color-bearer of the Eighty-Ninth, with pistol in hand, fell wounded, and Lieutenant Wright siezed the staff. Fifty-three of the Eighty-Ninth fell. One hundred and fifty of the brigade were killed and wounded. In the end the Rebels fled.
The rear then crossed the Atchiafalaya, and without further opposition, followed the advance to the Mississippi.
General Banks gained for himself nothing but reproach and mortification in the Red river expedition, and his return to the Mississippi was the signal for his removal from com- mand. His subordinates were more happy.
General Emory, addressing Colonel Lucas, says: "In many of the battles your conduct has come under my per- sonal observation, and in all you have exhibited the sound- est judgment and the most conspicuous gallantry. As an old cavalry officer, I can say with sincerity, I have never seen cavalry better handled."
All the Indianians conducted themselves creditably. About five thousand men, eighteen guns, and perhaps two hun- dred wagons were lost during the campaign. At Sabine Cross Roads, Klauss' battery lost five; the Sixteenth regi- ment lost sixty; Lieutenant Jones was killed in a skirm- ish preceding the battle, and Captain Moore was severely
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
wounded; the Forty-Sixth lost one hundred, among the cap- tured Lieutenant Colonel Flory and Chaplain Robb; the Sixtieth and Sixty-Seventh also lost heavily.
At Pleasant Hill several of the Sixteenth were among the killed and wounded. Captain Doxey, who, on account of the illness of Colonel Redfield, had command, was danger- ously wounded.
Other regiments have published no report.
The total Union loss in the skirmishes and battles from the seventh to the ninth of April, was three thousand nine hundred and eighty men, chiefly in prisoners.
The Rebel loss was also large.
Porter's fleet resumed its station on the Mississippi. The Sixteenth and Seventeenth corps went back to Vicksburg. The Nineteenth and a portion of the Thirteenth, returned to New Orleans, dropping a few regiments along the way,-the Forty-Seventh at Morganzia, the Sixty-Seventh and several others at Baton Rouge, to which a recent event attracted at- tention. A portion of the troops from Texas was stationed at Baton Rouge the last of April to fill the place of the gar- rison when it was forwarded to Red river. The Eighteenth Indiana remained encamped in the suburbs of the city more than a month, part of the time on post duty. The enemy taking advantage of the state of affairs produced by the de- feat of the army on Red river, organized an expedition for the capture of Baton Rouge. He was anticipated by the commander of the post, who, with his available forces, met the Rebels at Olive Branch, near Comite river, and in a hot engagement of five hours duration, defeated them and drove them back into the interior of the State. The Eighteenth was actively engaged, and behaved with such coolness and bravery as to call for honorable mention.
General Steele's hapless march winds up the story of the Red river expedition. It began March 22, 23 and 24, the main foree, seven thousand strong, moving out from Little Rock, co-operating bodies from Fort Smith on the right, and Pine Bluffs on the left, and was directed to Arkadelphia, as a place of rendezvous.
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STEELE'S ADVANCE.
Southwestern Arkansas is a wooded country, with few roads and many streams, which might be described as pecu- liarly susceptible to rains, were it not that in nearly every expedition, bottomless mud and swollen rivers form a large account. Numerous and well conditioned Rebel troops, in command of General Price, were on the alert to "welcome invaders with bloody hands to hospitable graves."
Steele crossed the Saline, and skirmishing not more than enough to make the march lively, reached Arkadelphia. Here he waited nearly two days for Thayer with a force of nearly five thousand. Thayer arrived after his departure, and followed him.
Skirmishing became heavy and small encounters fre- quently occurred. Hostile bodies of considerable size were several times flanked, and progress was not seriously im- peded until at Prairie d'Anne a Rebel force of artillery and infantry seemed bent on compelling Steele to stand up to a regular fight. The challenge was reluctantly accepted, nev- ertheless the ensuing battle, chiefly of artillery, resulted in the discomfiture and retreat of the Rebels.
In this affair Rabb's battery, now under Captain Espy, did good service.
The Indiana troops in Steele's ranks, were the Second bat- tery and the two thin regiments, the Forty-Third, about four hundred strong, and the Fiftieth, which had accompanied him to Little Rock the previous fall.
Colonel Clayton moved out from Pine Bluff with about a thousand men. At Mount Elba on the Saline, he was at- tacked by General Dockery with sixteen hundred men. The attack was expected, and was repulsed with severe Rebel loss. Ascertaining that a Rebel train with a small escort was crossing the Saline at Longview, forty miles below Mount Elba, Clayton directed Captain Greathouse, with fifty Kansas and fifty Indiana cavalry, to effect its destruction. Starting at cight in the morning, Greathouse reached Long- view at dusk. He followed the train across the river, and finding the escort divided into three parties and just going into camp, he entrapped each party separately, by issuing orders with the assured manner of a Rebel officer, and cap-
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
tured two hundred and ninety men, and sixty wagons, loaded chiefly with Quartermasters' stores.
As far as Prairie d'Anne, the national forces had the best in each collision. Steele could not but see, however, that the Rebels gathered strength with every step backward, and he could not but forbode that if faint rumors which reached his ears of the destruction of Banks' army were true, he would find himself in a lion's den in Shreveport, after even a suc- cessful march. Looking askance at Camden during several slow and toiling days, he calculated that he could there de- fend himself while he considered the possibility of advance and the advisability of retreat. Suddenly and unexpectedly he turned to the left.
The Rebels, at first bewildered, soon understood the dodge, and hastening after him, worried his flank and rear, and at the same time endeavored to gain his front.
Receiving undoubted assurance of the retreat of Banks, and eredible reports that a force of twenty-five thousand might any day be concentrated in his front, Steele determ- ined to leave Camden as soon as it was possible to feed his troops, and to return forthwith to Little Rock.
At this point his troubles might be said to begin. The Rebels beset him on every side. Thirty miles east, they crossed the Washita on a pontoon, and obstructed the water by felling trees into the stream. Twelve miles west, in strong forec, they fell upon a foraging party of nearly a thousand men, with one hundred and fifty wagons, and after a long and severe struggle, inflicted a loss of two hundred and fifty men, with four guns, two of them Espy's, and the entire train. Twelve miles north they attacked a train of six ambulances and two hundred and forty wagons, return- ing to Pine Bluffs, after having taken supplies to the army, escorted by a brigade of infantry, four guns and two hundred cavalry. They were repulsed in their first attack, and baf- fled in pursuit on the following day, but on the third day, April 25, they succeeded in almost demolishing the train.
The van of the escort, the Forty-Third Indiana and the Forty-Sixth Iowa, was just extrieated from a swamp four miles long, when the Rebels, six thousand in number, ap-
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STEELE'S RETREAT.
peared. The two regiments fought heroically, desperately, and they were ably seconded by the rear, but they were over- powered. All the wagons and guns were taken, and full half of the men composing the escort were killed, wounded, or captured.
As was afterward ascertained, the prisoners were marched off the same night, and were kept on the march twenty-four hours. without food or rest, until fifty-two miles were ac- complished. They were taken to Tyler, Texas, which they reached the fourteenth of May.
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