Following
the Battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, Union Major General Nathaniel P
Banks’ retreat reached the Atchafalaya River on May 17th 1864. If he could get across the river his force
would be protected from Confederate harassment, but he had to wait for the
engineers to build a bridge.
On May 18th
1864 Confederate Major General Richard Taylor neared Yellow Bayou. Banks order Union Brigadier General AJ Smith
to meet and stop them, he ordered Brigadier General Joseph A Mower to make the
movement. The fight commenced with first
one side then the other pushing forward or giving up ground for several
hours. Finally the ground over which
they were fighting caught fire and both sides were forced to retire.
This battle
ended Banks’ Red River Expedition. The
Union troops sustained 360 casualties, while the Confederates lost 500.
No comments:
Post a Comment