Description: |
After the battle of Pleasant Hill on April 9, Brig. Gen. Tom Green led his men to Pleasant Hill Landing
on the Red River, where, about 4:00 pm on April 12, they discovered grounded and damaged Union transports and
gunboats, the XVI and XVII army corps river transportation, and U.S. Navy gunboats, with supplies and armament
aboard. Union Brig. Gen. Thomas Kilby Smith’s Provisional Division, XVII Corps, troops, and the Navy gunboats
furnished protection for the army transports. Green and his men charged the boats. When Green attacked, Smith’s
men used great ingenuity in defending the boats and dispersing the enemy. Hiding behind bales of cotton, sacks of
oats, and other ersatz obstructions, the men on the vessels, along with the Navy gunboats, repelled the attack, killed
Green, and savaged the Confederate ranks. The Confederates withdrew and most of the Union transports continued
downriver. On the 13th, at Campti, other boats ran aground and came under enemy fire from Brig. Gen. St. John R.
Liddell’s Sub-District of North Louisiana troops, which harassed the convoy throughout the 12th and 13th. The
convoy rendezvoused with Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks’s army at Grand Ecore, providing the army with badly
needed supplies. |