730 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



During the months of March and April this same 

 force under Forrest annoyed us considerably. On 

 the 24th of March it captured Union City, Kentucky, 

 and its garrison, and on the 24th attacked Paducah, 

 commanded by Colonel S. G. Hicks, Fortieth Illinois 

 Volunteers. Colonel H., having but a small force, 

 withdrew to the forts near the river, from where he 

 repulsed the enemy and drove him from the place. 



On the 13th of April part of this force, under the 

 rebel General Buford, summoned the garrison of 

 Columbus, Kentucky, to surrender, but received for 

 reply from Colonel Lawrence, Thirty-fourth New 

 Jersey Volunteers, that, being placed there by his 

 Government, with adequate force to hold his post and 

 repel all enemies from it, surrender was out of the 

 question. 



On the morning of the same day Forrest attacked 

 Fort Pillow, Tennessee, garrisoned by a detachment 

 of Tennessee cavalry and the First Regiment Alabama 

 colored troops, commanded by Major Booth. The 

 garrison fought bravely until about 3 o'clock in the 

 afternoon, wnen the enemy carried the works by as- 

 sault ; and, after our men threw down their arms, 

 proceeded to an inhuman and merciless massacre of 

 the garrison. 



On the 14th, General Buford, having failed at Co- 

 lumbus, appeared before Paducah, but was again 

 driven off. 



Guerrillas and raiders, seemingly emboldened by 

 Forrest's operations, were also very active in Ken- 

 tucky. The most noted of these was Morgan. With 

 a force of from two to three thousand cavalry he en- 

 tered the State through Pound Gap in the latter part 

 of May. On the llth of June he attacked and cap- 

 tured Cynthiaua, with its entire garrison. On the 

 12th he was overtaken by General Burbridge, and 

 completely routed with heavy loss, and was finally 

 driven out of the State. This notorious guerrilla 

 was afterwards surprised and killed near Greenville, 

 Tennessee, and his command captured and dispersed 

 by General Gillem. 



In the absence of official reports at the commence- 

 ment of the Red River expedition, except so far as 

 relates to the movements or the troops sent by Gen- 

 eral Sherman under A. J. Smith, I am unable to give 

 the date of its starting. The troops under General 

 Smith, comprising two divisions of the Sixteenth 

 and a detachment of tb 3 Seventeenth Army Corps, 

 left Vicksburg on the 10th of March and reached the 

 designated point on Red River one day earlier than 

 that appointed by General Banks. The rebel forces 

 at Fort De Russey, thinking to defeat him, left the 

 fort on the 14th to give him battle in the open field ; 

 but, while occupying the enemy with skirmishing 

 and demonstrations, Smith pushed forward to Fort 

 De Russey, which had been left with a weak garrison, 

 and captured it with its garrison about 350 men, 11 

 pieces of artillery, and many small-arms. Our loss 

 was but slight. " On the 15th he pushed forward to 

 Alexandria, which place he reached on the 18th. On 

 the 21st he had an engagement with the enemy at 

 Henderson Hill, in which lie defeated him, capturing 

 210 prisoners and 4 pieces of artillery. 



On the 28th he again attacked and defeated the 

 enemy under the rebel General Taylor, at Cane River. 

 By the 26th General Banks had assembled his whole 

 army at Alexandria and pushed forward to Grand 

 Ecore. On the morning of April 6th he moved from 

 Grand Ecore. On the afternoon of the 7th his ad- 

 vance engaged the enemy near Pleasant Hill and 

 drove him from the field. On the same afternoon the 

 enemy made a stand eight miles beyond Pleasant 

 Hill, but was again compelled to retreat. On the Stb, 

 at Sabine Cross-Roads and Peach Hill, the enemy at- 

 tacked and defeated his advance, capturing nineteen 

 pieces of artillery and an immense 'amount of trans- 

 portation and stores. During the night General 

 Banks fell back to Pleasant Hill, where another bat- 

 tle was fought on the 9th, and the enemy repulsed 

 with great loss. During the night General Banks 



continued his retrograde movement to Grand Ecore, 

 and thence to Alexandria, which he reached on tho 

 27th of April. Here a serious difficulty arose in get- 

 ting Admiral Porter's fleet, which accompanied the 

 expedition, over the rapids, the water having fallen 

 so much since they passed up as to prevent their re- 

 turn. At the suggestion of Colonel (now Brigadier- 

 General) Bailey; and under his superintendence, 

 wing-dams were constructed, by which the channel 

 was contracted so that the fleet passed down the 

 rapids in safety. 



The army evacuated Alexandria on the 14th of 

 May, after considerable skirmishing with the enemy's 

 advance, and reached Morganzia and Point Coup6e 

 near the end of the month. The disastrous termina- 

 tion of this expedition, and the lateness of the season, 

 rendered impracticable the carrying out of my plan 

 of a movement in force sufficient to insure the cap- 

 ture" of Mobile. 



On the 23d of March, Major-General Steele left Lit- 

 tle Rock with the Seventh Army Corps to cooperate 

 with General Banks' s expedition on Red River, and 

 reached Arkadelphia on the 28th. On the 16th of 

 April, after driving the enemy before him, he was 

 joined, near Elkiu s Ferry, in Washita County, by 

 General Thayer, who had marched from Fort Smith. 

 After several severe skirmishes, in which the enemy 

 was defeated, General Steele reached Camden, which 

 he occupied about the middle of April. 



On learning the defeat and consequent retreat of 

 General Bunks on Red River, and the loss of one of 

 his own trains at Mark's mill, in Dallas County, 

 General Steele determined to fall back to the Arkan- 

 sas River. He left Camden on the 26th of April, and 

 reached Little Rock on the 2d of May. On the 30th 

 of April, the enemy attacked him while crossing 

 Saline River at Jenkins's Ferry, but was repulsed 

 with considerable loss. Our loss was about 600 in 

 killed, wounded, and prisoners. 



Major-General Canny, who had been assigned to 

 the command of the "Military Division of the West 

 Mississippi," was therefore directed to send the Nine- 

 teenth Army Corps to join the armies operating 

 against Richmond, and to limit the remainder of his 

 command to such operations as might be necessary 

 to hold the positions and lines of communications he 

 then occupied. 



Before starting General A. J. Smith's troops back 

 to Sherman, General Canby sent a part of them to dis- 

 perse a force of the enemy that was collecting near 

 the Mississippi River. General Smith met and de- 

 feated this force near Lake Chicot on the 5th of June. 

 Our loss was about forty killed and seventy wounded. 



In the latter part of July General Canby sent 

 Major-General Gordon Granger, with such forces as 

 he could collect to cooperate with Admiral Farragut 

 against the defences of Mobile Bay. On the 8th of 

 August Fort Gaines surrendered to the combined 

 naval and land forces. Fort Powell was blown up and 

 abandoned. 



On the 9th, Fort Morgan was invested, and, after a 

 severe bombardment, surrendered on the 23d. The 

 total captures amounted to 1,464 prisoners, and 104 

 pieces of artillery. 



About the last of August, it being reported that the 

 rebel General Price, with a force of about 10,000 men, 

 had reached Jacksonport, on his way to invade Mis- 

 souri, General A. J. Smith's command, then enroute 

 from Memphis to join Sherman, was ordered to Mis- 

 souri. A cavalry force was also, at the same time, 

 sent from Memphis, under command of Colonel Wins- 

 low. This made General Rosecrans's forces superior 

 to those of Price, and no doubt was entertained he 

 would be able to check Price and drive him back ; 

 while the forces under General Steele, in Arkansas, 

 would cut off his retreat. On the 26th day of Sep- 

 tember Price attacked Pilot Knob and forced the gar- 

 rison to retreat, and thence moved north to the Mis- 

 souri River, and continued up that river toward 

 Kansas. General Curtis, commanding department 



