Port Hudson, Louisiana - July 7, 1863

Confederate gun at Port Hudson State Historic Site

150 years ago today, Major General Franklin Gardner (CS) at Port Hudson learned that Vicksburg had fallen three days earlier.

The news came not from the Union commander, Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, but from his soldiers themselves, who called across the lines to let the Confederate defenders of the Louisiana bastion know that they alone remained to defend the Mississippi River for the South. The intelligence was passed up through command to General Gardner, who penned a brief inquiry to General Banks and had it delivered through the lines under a flag of truce:

Museum Display of Heavy Artillery Shells at Port Hudson

GENERAL: Having received information from your troops that Vicksburg has been surrendered, I make this communication to ask you to give me the official assurance whether this is true or not; and, if true, I ask for a cessation of hostilities with a view to consider terms for surrendering this position. - Maj. Gen. Franklin Gardner, CSA (July 7, 1863).

It was a remarkable fact of the 19th century that commanding officers believed they could trust their enemies to be honorable and provide them with accurate information under such situations.

The siege at Port Hudson had continued longer than any other siege of the War Between the States (or Civil War). The first attempt by the Union army to storm the defenses of the Confederate bastion had ended in disaster (please see Fighting goes on at Port Hudson, Louisiana). Not only did it leave nearly 2,000 Union officers and soldiers dead, wounded or missing, the assault gave a significant boost to the morale of the surrounded Confederates. They had plenty of gunpowder and believed they could beat the Union army any time it chose to advance.

Field gun on display at Port Hudson

General Gardner and his men proved this again on June 13-14, 1863, when Banks attempted a three-pronged infantry assault on the fortifications of Port Hudson. The Confederates now had just over 3,500 men capable of fighting, while the Union army numbered more than 30,000.

The attack began at 11:15 in the morning of June 13 when more than 100 Union cannon opened fire on the earthworks and trenches of Port Hudson. After one hour of bombardment that could be heard in Baton Rouge and other towns throughout the region, General Banks demanded that Gardner surrender. The Confederate general replied that duty required him to defend his post and told Banks simply, "I decline to surrender."

Indiana Artillery firing on Port Hudson
Courtesy Library of Congress

The bombardment was resumed and continued through the night and into the pre-dawn hours of July 14, 1863. Then, at 3:30 a.m., the Union infantry began its assault. The attack was confused and poorly organized. Fog and the smoke of the bombardment created even more confusion in the dark. The result was a Confederate victory so lopsided that it was matched by few other engagements of the war. The Union army lost 1,792 men killed, wounded and missing. The Confederates lost only 47.

Even as their food and bullets ran out, the Confederates kept fighting. Reduced to eating rats and their own mules, they made up for their lack of bullets and artillery shells by salvaging the ones fired into the front of their earthworks by the Union army. They carried out quick raids against the Union infantry that was slowly digging its approach trenches toward them. When they learned that the Federals were trying to dig mines under their works to plant gunpowder in order to blow them up, the Confederates dug mines of their own and blew up the Union mines.

Looking out from Confederate lines at Port Hudson
Courtesy Library of Congress

One can not help but wonder what might have happened at Vicksburg had Gardner been in command there.

Gardner and his tiny command, in fact, held out longer than any other force under siege during the war. It was not until he learned that Vicksburg had fallen that he finally accepted the fact that there was no further need for sacrifice on the part of his men. Port Hudson was the southern defense for the stretch of the Mississippi River used to move supplies and men from west of the river to the railroad at Vicksburg. With Vicksburg in Union hands, Port Hudson no longer served a purpose for the Confederacy.

So, late in the day on July 7, 1863 - 150 years ago today, Gardner sent his inquiry through the lines asking for official confirmation from Banks that Vicksburg had surrendered. The Union commander would not reply until early the next morning, and for one more night the fighting continued to rage.

Please click here to learn about the surrender of Port Hudson.

Read more about Port Hudson battlefield at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/porthudson.

Fighting goes on at Port Hudson, Louisiana - July 5, 1863

Confederate Fortifications at Port Hudson

150 years ago today, as Union troops consolidated their hold on the newly captured city of Vicksburg, the fighting and misery continued down the Mississippi River at Port Hudson, Louisiana.

With the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, Port Hudson became the last remaining Confederate
stronghold on the Mississippi. The siege there is remembered today as the longest in American history.

Inside the fortifications that ringed the little river community, Confederate general Franklin Gardner and his force of fewer than 5,000 men defied a Union army more than three times the size of their own along with the firepower of some of the most powerful warships of the U.S. Navy. It was a battle against overwhelming odds unlike any other ever fought on the North American continent and it went on for 48 days.

Confederate flag that flew over Port Hudson

After the fall of Memphis to the north and New Orleans and then Baton Rouge to the South, the Confederacy was in serious danger of being split in two. The loss of a way to move men and supplies from the states west of the Mississippi River to the armies battling east of the river would be a disaster from which the Southern nation likely would not recover. To attempt to preserve this tenuous lifeline, Confederate engineers fortified the high bluffs of Vicksburg to the north and Port Hudson to the South.

Located on the east side of the river just south of its confluence with the Red River, Port Hudson was an ideal position for defenses that would protect the southern approach to the stretch of the Mississippi that ran from the mouth of the Red up to Vicksburg. This would enable supplies coming by steamboat down the Red to continue to flow up the Mississippi to Vicksburg from which they could be shipped out by rail to all points east.

Port Hudson Peace Monument

The position was occupied by Confederate troops after they failed to retake Baton Rouge in 1862. Located at a sharp bend of the river, its high bluffs offered the ideal position for the emplacement of heavy guns. Work on the batteries continued through the winter of 1862-1863. Major General Franklin Gardner arrived late in December of 1862 to assume command of the position. His selection would prove to be an inspired choice.

Major General Nathaniel Banks, commanding the Union''s Department of the Gulf, was under pressure from Washington, D.C. to push north up the Mississippi, reduce Port Hudson and join forces with Major General Ulysses S. Grant for a final move on Vicksburg. Banks tried to accomplish this by swinging west into the bayous and driving north up the Atchafalaya River to its junction with the Red. He hoped this would enable him to bypass Port Hudson and force its evacuation. When he reached the Red River, however, expected troops and transports were not there. Grant had changed his plans and gone ashore near Port Gibson with his full army.

Gun taken from USS Merrimac and used at Port Hudson

Since he had no way to get his army north to join forces with Grant, Banks decided to move against Port Hudson with his own 17,000 man force. Orders were issued on May 18, 1862, and troops began to march north from Baton Rouge, rapidly covering the dozen or so miles between that city and the Confederate position at Port Hudson. Other parts of Banks' army came down the Red into the Mississippi and were landed at Bayou Sara near St. Francisville just north of Port Hudson.

Fighting broke out on May 21, 1862, as a miniscule force of Confederates opposed the oncoming Federals at the Battle of Plains Store west of Port Hudson. Resisting fiercely, they inflicted worse casualties than they received and then fell back into the trenches at Port Hudson.  By the night of May 22nd, the Confederate position was surrounded by Banks and his converging army.

Confederate earthworks at Port Hudson

General Gardner and his men dug in at a furious rate, extending and strengthening their defenses. They watched as the Union navy formed in the Mississippi and the Union army moved into position around them from all directions. They knew they were outnumbered and outgunned, but they determined to put up the fight of their lives.

The Southern soldiers got their first chance on May 27, 1863, when daylight broke over the woods and fields to the east and Union cannon opened fire on them from all directions. They responded furiously at first with their own cannon, but then slowed their rate of fire to conserve ammunition. They knew a massive infantry attack was coming and they got into position and ready to welcome it.

Union troops were trapped in this ravine during the first assault.

When the huge attack came, it was carried out by more soldiers than there were Confederates in the entire Port Hudson lines. Gardner was ready, however, and his skirmishers alone held back the attacking columns for more than an hour. Fighting from a tangled mess of felled trees and the ravines and ridges outside the main works, the Confederate skirmishers fought fiercely against overwhelming numbers.

When they finally withdrew into the main lines and the Federal troops tried to push forward, they found themselves wading into the fire of dozens of cannon and thousands of rifles. The fighting went on all day and all night. When the Confederates opened fire again the next morning, Banks decided his men had suffered enough and raised a flag of truce. Gardner granted the Union general's request for a ceasefire so his dead and wounded could be removed from the field.

The first attempt to storm Port Hudson left 1,995 Union soldiers dead, wounded or missing. The Confederates lost 235 men. The attack had been a bloody disaster for the Union army. There may have been only 4,000 Confederates at Port Hudson, but they were prepared to fight.

I will post more about the Siege of Port Hudson tomorrow.  You can read more about the battlefield at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/porthudson.

Vicksburg and Port Hudson - The "other" battles of July 1863

Confederate Cannon and the Mississippi River at Vicksburg

The nation is remembering the Battle of Gettysburg this week, and appropriately so, but seems a bit sad to me that we seem to have forgotten that another major and bloody battles took place at the same time on the bluffs of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson, Louisiana.

These battles were as significant victories for the North as Gettysburg and even a greater disasters for the South. The fall of the Vicksburg on July 4, 1863 - 150 years ago this week - and Port Hudson on July 9, 1863, cut the Confederacy in two and opened the Mississippi River to the supply and warships of the Union.

Port Hudson Battlefield in Louisiana

The opening of the Mississippi was a vital part of the "Anaconda Plan" conceived by Gen. Winfield T. Scott, the aged hero of the War of 1812 and War with Mexico who commanded the U.S. Army at the beginning of the War Between the States. Combined with the blockade of the Southern coastline, the opening of the Mississippi would strangle the Confederacy by cutting off the movement of supplies, munitions, medicines and other necessities of its armies.

By July of 1863, only two great Confederate bastions remained on the river, Vicksburg in Mississippi and Port Hudson in Louisiana. In both places, Confederate armies dug deep into the earth and clung to earthwork fortifications in desperate fights for survival. They had fought desperately and hurled back attack after attack, covering the ground with the blood and blue uniformed bodies of Union soldiers.

Some of the Thousands who Died

At Port Hudson, just a 30 minute drive north of Baton Rouge today, 10,000 Union soldiers were reported killed, wounded or missing, compared to a Confederate loss of 750 in actual combat.

At Vicksburg, Union commanders estimated that they lost 4,835 men killed, wounded or missing. The Confederates estimated that their actual combat losses were 3,202 men killed and wounded.

So much blood was spilled on the bluffs at Port Hudson and Vicksburg that it is difficult to imagine the true cost in human suffering of the two battles. Combined, the two battles left nearly 19,000 men dead, wounded or missing.

I will tell you more about them over coming days, but it seemed appropriate, as the massive commemoration of Gettysburg begins, that we also remember the men of Vicksburg and Port Hudson.

You can read more about the battlefields by visiting:

• The Siege and Battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi
• The Siege and Battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana

USS Kidd - WWII Destroyer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

USS Kidd and Mississippi River at Baton Rouge, Louisiana

One of my favorite Southern scenes is the view of the historic World War II warship USS Kidd framed by downtown Baton Rouge from the I-10 bridge over the Mississippi River.

Now a museum and memorial, the destroyer was built and launched in New Jersey in 1943. Named for Rear Admiral Isaac Campbell Kidd, Sr., who was killed when his flagship - the battleship USS Arizona - was destroyed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

USS Kidd

The crew of the ship, however, always enjoyed their association with another "Captain Kidd," the famed pirate or privateer of the late 17th century. A swashbuckling caricature of the pirate graces the funnel of the ship and the USS Kidd was the only U.S. Navy warship ever authorized to fly the infamous "Jolly Roger" pirate flag.

The Kidd spent most of her World War II career in the Pacific. She was one of the destroyers that escorted the battleship USS Alabama to Pearl Harbor and took part in fighting throughout the island hopping campaign waged by the U.S. across the Pacific. At one point she closed to within 11 miles of the Japanese mainland.

Learn more about this historic warship and find out how she came to become part of the Baton Rouge cityscape: http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/usskidd.

The Battle of Baton Rouge - The American Revolution in Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana (Battlefield at Right)

It is a little known fact that one of the most important battles of the American Revolution took place not in New England or along the East Coast, but far to the west on the banks of the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Hoping to gain advantage over Great Britain, the King of Spain declared his support of the fledgling United States on May 8, 1779, and declared war on Spain's long-time rival. Two months later he extended the right to make war to his subjects in North America.

Spain then possessed what later became known as the Louisiana Purchase, which included the parts of present day Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, as well as the city of New Orleans. Spanish territory also extended up the great river to include present-day Arkansas, Missouri and other states.

Revolutionary War Cannon at Baton Rouge

Great Britain, in turn, held the colonies of East Florida and West Florida, which had not joined in the revolution against the King. West Florida then extended from the Apalachicola River on the east all the way to the Mississippi River on the west. The modern cities of Baton Rouge, Mobile and Pensacola were included in this domain and were garrisoned by British troops.

Learning of the King's declaration, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana immediately began to prepare a campaign against the British at Baton Rouge. His name was Bernardo de Galvez and he was one of the most successful year least known generals of the American Revolution.

The British fort stood near the Pentagon Barracks (right)

Moving north from New Orleans with an army of 580 Spanish regulars, 60 local militiamen, 80 free blacks, 10 American volunteers and an irregular force of some 600 Acadians and Indians, Galvez took Fort Bute, an English post at Bayou Manchac, on September 7, 1779.  He then moved on Baton Rouge, where 550 British soldiers manned the new and strong Fort New Richmond.

Nothing remains above ground of the fort today, but it stood adjacent to the spot where the historic Pentagon Barracks were later built overlooking the river. The earthwork fortification was armed with cannon and held 400 British regulars from the 16th and 60th regiments, some militia, a few regular artillerymen and several companies from the 3rd Waldeck Regiment (Germans).

Memorial to the 1779 Battle of Baton Rouge

Galvez laid siege to the fort on September 12, 1779, moving his troops completely around its land sides and preparing siege trenches and hidden batteries. On September 21, 1779, the Patriot army opened its bombardment of Fort New Richmond. The British fired back long enough to defend the honor of their king, but then raised the white flag.

The Battle of Baton Rouge gave the Spanish control of the western end of West Florida and ended forever Great Britain's claim to the Mississippi River. Galvez went on to take Fort Charlotte at Mobile and Fort George at Pensacola in one of the most remarkable campaigns of the American Revolution. The Spanish general with his mixed army eliminated any British claim to the Gulf Coast and opened the door for the eventual United States capture and acquisition of the territory making up the modern states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

To learn more about the Battle of Baton Rouge, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/batonrouge1779.