crumbling everywhere and falling back.”
Half a mile behind their first line, the flee-
ing Union soldiers ran into a defensive cor-
don of 1,300 men from the 3rd Division
under Brig. Gen. Robert Cameron. They
filtered through, and Cameron managed to
stand for about an hour before his stopgap
line ruptured. Hundreds of Union soldiers
were then streaming away from the fight,
running headlong into Lee’s wagons and
leaving them behind to fall into the hands
of Taylor’s onrushing Rebels.
Two miles beyond the unfolding debacle,
the 1st Division of XIX Corps was rapidly
marching toward the sound of the guns. Its
commander, Brig. Gen. William Emory, a
combat veteran and West Point graduate,
was unfazed by the mob running past him.
Emory formed his men in a line at Pleasant
Grove along a ridge behind a small stream
known as Chapman’s Bayou. Taylor’s Con-
federates were disorganized and breathless
by the time they reached Emory’s line, and
their uncoordinated attacks were easily
repulsed. After less than 30 minutes the
Rebel onslaught was stopped.
Darkness fell and Banks, who had shown
considerable valor as he tried to gain con-
trol of his retreating troops, counted the
cost. The Union force had lost 2,200 sol-
diers killed or wounded, more than 200
wagons, and 20 artillery pieces. Still, Banksinitially wanted to hold his ground and
bring up Smith’s veterans to renew the bat-
tle the next day. His lieutenants, however,
advised an organized withdrawal to Pleas-
ant Hill, where Banks could find Smith
with relative ease. The distance was about
14 miles, and by the following morning the
Union position around the town was con-
solidated.
While Banks withdrew, the Confederates
happily pillaged the abandoned Union
wagons, and by dawn Taylor realized that
the enemy had pulled back. Quickly he put
Green’s cavalry on the road toward Pleas-
ant Hill, with Churchill and Parsons
marching hard behind them. Polignac led
Mouton’s former command of
Louisianans, and Walker’s Texans, flush
with victory, followed.
The Confederates wasted little time,
spurred on by Taylor’s belief that he was
fighting only the now-battered XIX Corps.
By 9 AM, Green’s horsemen were within a
mile of Pleasant Hill, and from a plateau
outside the town they could see Banks and
Smith in line between two hills that
guarded their flanks with soggy marshland
to their front. The Confederate infantry
began filtering into the area, tired and
parched with thirst. The Missouri and
Arkansas soldiers had tramped nearly 50
miles in two days.While Taylor surveyed the situation, he
allowed the winded infantrymen to rest for
a couple of hours. At midday, an artillery
duel erupted between a dozen Confederate
howitzers, many of them captured during
fighting in New Mexico the previous year,
and a Union battery occupying one of the
hills to Taylor’s left. The Rebel fusillade
eventually drove the New York battery
from its position, and the Confederate
commander ordered another attack.
Elements of Churchill’s division moved
against the Union left while the big guns
were still dueling, charging into a brigade
from Emory’s division led by Colonel
Lewis Benedict. Momentarily the Union
line held, but Churchill managed to slip
to the right and outflank Benedict, who
was shot dead in the melee. The defense
fell apart, and the retreating Union sol-
diers ran for the dozen or so buildings in
the town of Pleasant Hill. Banks’s center
was now vulnerable, and Walker, Poli-
gnac, and Green, his horsemen again
fighting as infantry, dashed into the gap.
Shortly after Churchill attacked, Green
ordered elements of his cavalry to charge
across the muddy slough and slash into theUnion forces attack in improbable good order during
the Battle of Pleasant Hill on April 9. The Federals
won a tactical victory, but panicky commanders fum-
bled away their advantage.CWQ-Sum16 Red River_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:20 PM Page 39