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and then charged upon the intrenchments. Rushing into the fort, they raised the cry No quarter! The
Confederate officers, says Pollard, lost control of their men, who were maddened by the sight of negro
troops opposing them, and an indiscriminate slaughter followed.]
A joint naval and land expedition, under the command of General Banks, was sent up the Red River in the
hope of destroying the Confederate authority in that region and in Texas (map opp. p. 222). Fort de Russy
was taken (March 14), whence Banks moved on toward Shreveport. The line of march became extended a
distance of nearly thirty miles along a single road. At Sabine Cross Roads (April 8) the Confederate forces,
under General Dick Taylor, attacked the advance, and a miniature Bull Run retreat ensued. The Union troops,
however, rallied at Pleasant Hill, and the next day, reinforcements coming up from the rear, they were able to
repulse the Confederates. The army thereupon returned to New Orleans, and Banks was relieved of the
command.
[Footnote: Porter, who commanded the gunboats in the Red River, hearing of Banks's retreat, attempted to
return with his fleet, but the river fell so rapidly that this became impossible. It was feared that it would be
necessary to blow up the vessels to prevent their falling into the enemy's hands, when, by the happy
suggestion of Colonel Bailey, formerly a Wisconsin lumberman, they were saved. He constructed a series of
wing-dams below the rapids, and when the water rose, the boats were safely floated over. This skilful
expedient was almost the only relieving feature of the campaign, which was believed by some to have been
undertaken simply as a gigantic cotton speculation in behalf of certain parties, who seemed to be more intent
on gathering that staple than on conserving the interests of the Union cause. The failure was, therefore, at the
North a source of great mortification and reproach.]
The Effect. This campaign was a great Confederate triumph. Banks lost five thousand men, eighteen guns,
and large supplies.
[Footnote: General Steele, who commanded in Arkansas, had moved from Little Rock to cooperate in this
advance, but on nearing Shreveport, learned of Banks's retreat. He immediately turned around, and with great
difficulty and severe fighting, managed to escape back to Little Rock. This disaster enabled ihe Confederates
RED RIVER EXPEDITION. 140
A Brief History of the United States
to recover half of the State.]
THE WAR ON THE SEA AND ON THE COAST.
THE EXPEDITION AGAINST MOBILE (August 5) was under the command of Admiral Farragut. That he
might oversee the battle more distinctly, he took his position in the maintop of his flag-ship the Hartford.
The vessels, lashed together in pairs for mutual assistance, in an hour fought their way past the Confederate
forts, and engaged the iron-clad fleet beyond (map, p. 280). After a desperate resistance, the great iron ram
Tennessee was taken, and the other vessels were captured or put to flight. The forts were soon after reduced,
and the harbor was closed to blockade runners.
[Footnote: The city of Mobile was not captured until the next year, when Generals Granger's, Steele's, and A.
J. Smith's commands, making a force of about forty-five thousand men, were collected for this purpose by
Gen. Canby. The forts were gallantly defended by General Maury, but were taken within less than two weeks.
The city itself was evacuated April 11. The Union troops entered the next day, ignorant that Lee had
surrendered three days before, and that the Confederacy was dead.]
THE EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT FISHER, which defended the harbor of Wilmington, N. C., was
commanded by Commodore Porter. It consisted of seventy vessels and a land force under General Butler.
After a fierce bombardment (December 24, 25) Butler decided that the fort could not be taken by assault, and
the army returned to Fortress Monroe. Commodore Porter, dissatisfied with the result, lay off the place, and
asked for a second trial. The same troops, with fifteen hundred additional men, were sent back under General
Terry. Protected by a terrible fire from the fleet, a column of sailors and one of soldiers worked their way, by
a series of trenches, within two hundred yards of the fort. At the word, the former leaped forward on one side
and the latter on another. The sailors were repulsed, but the soldiers burst into the fort. The hand-to-hand
fight within lasted for hours. Late at night the garrison, hemmed in on all sides, surrendered (January 15,
1865). One knows not which to admire the more, the gallantry of the attack or the heroism of the defence. In
such a victory is glory, and in such a defeat, no disgrace.
THE BLOCKADE was now so effectual that the prices of all imported goods in the Confederate States were
fabulous.
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