The Battle of Port Hudson

Port Hudson 

At around 11:00 PM on the night of March 14, 1863, Union Admiral David Farragut attempted to run a fleet of seven ships by the Port Hudson batteries.  If successful, his fleet could effectively block Confederate river traffic supplying Port Hudson from the west via the Red River.  In a spectacular three-hour battle between the ship's guns and the Confederate batteries, five of the seven Federal ships were disabled, with one, Mississippi, running aground and being burned by the abandoning crew.  The remaining two vessels, Farragut's flagship, Hartford, and one gunboat, Albatross, were damaged but made it through and continued north.  Although Farragut's effort to run the fort is considered by many to be a failure, the two ships were able to effectively block the mouth of the Red River, seriously disrupting the flow of supplies into Port Hudson.

By May 22, Union forces under General Nathaniel Banks had surrounded the Port Hudson garrison with nearly 40,000 troops and numerous artillery batteries.  At the end of March, the Confederate garrison had consisted of approximately 16,000 men, but due to the redeployment of several brigades elsewhere, the Confederate strength was now at about 6,800.  A full-scale attack was launched by Banks on May 27, which was repulsed after furious fighting all along the lines, at a heavy loss to the Union.  This assault marked the first major use of black troops as combatants in the Civil War.  On June 14, another massive attack all along the Confederate lines was also beaten back, again with huge Northern losses, against relatively few among the Confederates.  The Union loss in the two assaults was reported to be 496 killed, 2,945 wounded and 358 missing.  This last failure ended Bank's plans for taking Port Hudson by frontal attack, and he decided on a siege to starve out the Confederates.

The siege period was a progressively miserable period for the Confederate soldiers inside the fortress.  They had no source of outside supply, and food, ammunition, and other essentials were consumed rapidly.  As the siege went on, they ate the horses, mules, dogs, and even the rats to survive.  They  were subjected to constant bombardment by Union artillery ringing the garrison, and from Farragut's ships on the river.  Many were killed or wounded by sniper fire from Union troops, who were approaching ever closer to their lines by digging trenches, or "saps".  In spite of these hardships, they held out and kept the Federals at bay.  With little chance of rescue by other Confederate forces, their situation was ultimately hopeless.

The Union troops also suffered greatly during the trench warfare of the siege.  Most were unaccustomed to the summer heat of Louisiana, and a large number of these men became ill and died, or were disabled.  Over 4,000 Union soldiers were hospitalized due to sunstroke or disease during the fight for Port Hudson.  They were also subjected to constant sniper fire from the Confederate sharpshooters, which took a terrible toll.  Morale was low among the troops.  Many of Bank's regiments were made up of men who enlisted for only nine months, but they were held over until Port Hudson surrendered, causing much dissention in those regiments.

General Banks planned another all-out attack for July 11.  Union soldiers had dug tunnels under the Confederate fortifications and planted large mines which were to be exploded at the beginning of the assault, giving the advancing troops an avenue into the fortress.  But Vicksburg, under siege since May 22nd,  fell on July 4th.   Banks received the news on the 7th, and the Confederates quickly were told by shouts from Union soldiers.  But General Gardner wanted to see proof.  When Banks showed him the dispatches from Vicksburg, he agreed to surrender.  The 48 day siege, the longest in American history, was over.  Banks agreed to parole the enlisted men, but sent the officers to prison.  Of the prisoners, 5,593 were paroled and some 500 sick and wounded were retained in the hospitals.  General Gardner reported his casualties as 200 killed, between 300 and 400 wounded, and about 200 died from sickness.  Only about 2,500 men were fit for duty at the time of the surrender.

See Photo and maps from Port Hudson