center of the Union line. The charge soon
came to grief as the Rebel riders were
caught by flanking fire from an adjacent
wooded area. Meanwhile, the rapidly dete-
riorating situation on his left brought
Banks to the brink of disaster. Churchill’s
troops were nearly into the town itself and
threatened his rear. Whooping as they con-
tinued to charge, the Rebels took little
notice of the long blue line of Smith’s vet-
erans on their right. At an order, they rose
up and delivered a punishing volley, fol-
lowed by a charge that pushed Churchill’s
surprised troops back into Walker’s men,who were battling in the center of the
Union position. The resulting combat was
brutal, hand-to-hand at times, but as day-
light began to fade Rebel resolve ebbed as
well. Some of the weary Confederates fled
in disarray.
Taylor took tactical control and ordered
the bulk of his command to retire to the
vicinity of a small stream six miles to the
rear. Other soldiers stayed on the battlefield
throughout the night, collapsing where
they stood and finding fitful sleep. Taylor
had lost more than 1,600 killed, wounded,
or captured during the momentous day,and another 1,000 had been lost at Sabine
Crossroads the previous day. Although
Banks had suffered nearly 1,400 casualties
on April 8 and lost nearly 4,000 men in the
two battles, the Union had greater numbers
available to renew the fight.
As the clock reached midnight, Kirby
Smith arrived from Shreveport. A bit
unnerved by the situation, he later
reported, “Our repulse was so complete
and our command was so disorganized
that had Banks followed up his success vig-
orously he would have met but feeble
opposition to his advance on Shreveport.”Banks held another council of war, and
Andrew Jackson Smith was virtually alone
among the Union officers favoring a stand
and renewal of battle the next day. He
believed that a major victory had been won
in spite of the fact that he never agreed with
Banks’s troop dispositions or his conduct
of the battle once the shooting began.
Smith considered Banks incompetent and
even suggested to General Franklin that the
Banks be arrested.
In a show of “military democracy,”
Banks allowed the majority to rule and sub-
sequently ordered a withdrawal. Threedays later, the last Union soldier had
trudged back to Grand Ecore. Shamefully,
Banks failed to gather his dead and left his
wounded on the field at Pleasant Hill. He
threw up earthworks, sent a message to
Porter asking for the fleet to join him with
much-needed supplies, and waited.
Taylor and Kirby Smith had been at odds
since the beginning of the prolonged
defense of northern Louisiana. Taylor
believed Smith had withheld the vital rein-
forcements from Price’s command for too
long. Now he was convinced that with
Banks separated from Porter’s gunboats
and his supplies running low, he could bag
both the Union Army and Navy contin-
gents if his superior would allow him to
pursue Banks to Grand Ecore. Kirby Smith,
however, would have none of it. Despite
the fact that the tactical draw at Pleasant
Hill had become a strategic victory for the
Confederacy with Banks’s retreat, Smith
ordered the divisions of Walker, Churchill,
and Parsons to return to Sterling Price to
counter Steele’s Union forces moving from
Arkansas.
Taylor was furious. Left with only about
5,000 troops, comprised largely of Green’s
cavalry and Polignac’s depleted division,
the best he could do was slow Banks down
should the Union commander continue to
fall back from the Red River country or
resume the offensive.
Meanwhile, Porter reached Loggy Bayou
unmolested but facing the hulk of the scut-
tled steamer that Smith had set across the
Red River above the landing. When word
of Banks’s defeat at Sabine Crossroads and
his retreat from Pleasant Hill reached the
admiral, Porter became alarmed. Without
Banks and his infantry, the Union flotilla
was in danger of being cut off and captured
in the confines of the river. Porter ordered
his fleet to retire from Loggy Bayou. Nav-
igation was nearly impossible in the shal-
low waters, and the need for speed caused
several unfortunate incidents. Confederate
snipers took potshots at anyone who
moved on the deck of a Federal gunboat,
and Porter fretted while his flagship pulled
the ironclad Chillicothefree after it had run
up on a submerged log. The big gunboatPorter’s ships exchange fire with Confederate defenders lying in wait on the banks of the Red River. Snipers
took a heavy toll on the Union gunboats.CWQ-Sum16 Red River_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:20 PM Page 40