Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Southern Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, 1862–1863 105
Terrain across which Union troops advanced to attack the Confederate trenches at
Port Hudson, 27 May 1863
ment in Weitzel’s force. The attackers rested before renewing their assault, wondering
when, or if, the rest of the Union line would move forward. 44
About 7:00, the Louisiana Native Guards received an order to advance at a point
about a mile to the southwest of the stalled attack near where the opposing lines
approached the river. Six companies of the 1st Native Guards—perhaps as many as
four hundred men—crossed a small creek and advanced toward the enemy position
near the crest of a steep bluff about four hundred yards long. Four Confederate cannon
and about three hundred sixty infantry awaited them there. Under fire from the
time they crossed the creek, the Native Guards received a blast of canister shot from
the cannon as they came within two hundred yards of the Confederate trenches. The
shock sent the survivors down the slope in retreat. At the creek, they ran into and
through the men of the 3d Regiment advancing to their support. Both regiments fell
back into some woods on the far side of the stream, where they reorganized. The
Confederate commander, who had been present since he heard of the impending attack
early that morning, reported seeing several attempts to rally the survivors; “but
all were unsuccessful and no effort was afterwards made to charge the works during
the entire day.” A captain in the Native Guards told an officer of Ullmann’s brigade
that his regiment “went into action about 6 a.m. and [was] under fire most of the time
until sunset”; but he did not mention any renewed attack. Union casualties amounted
to at least 112 officers and men killed and wounded, nearly all of them in the 1st Na-
44 OR, ser. 1, vol. 26, pt. 1, p. 508 (quotation); Hewitt, Port Hudson, pp. 138–47; Irwin,
Nineteenth Army Corps, pp. 170–72, 174.