Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Chapter 5
Southern Louisiana and
the Gulf Coast, 1863–1865
With Port Hudson secured, the Mississippi open to navigation, and regiments
of the Corps d’Afrique filling up, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks looked around for
new objectives. In concert with the Navy, he moved quickly to oust Confederate
defenders from the lower Atchafalaya River and wrote to Chief of Staff Maj.
Gen. Henry W. Halleck in Washington, D.C., of a possible move against the port
of Mobile or against Texas. Banks favored Mobile. Before his letter could reach
Washington, though, Halleck told him by telegraph that Texas was the preferable
goal “for important reasons.” In a subsequent letter, Halleck explained that the
impetus behind the telegram was diplomatic rather than military “and resulted
from some European complications, or, more properly speaking, was intended to
prevent such complications.” 1
While the United States was embroiled in war, the French emperor had landed
an army in Mexico and established a puppet monarchy there. A federal move into
Texas would cut off a source of Confederate supplies while providing a forceful
caution to the French. Therefore, both the president and the secretary of state
wanted Union troops in Texas “as soon as possible.” Halleck left details of the
offensive to Banks but suggested that while coastal operations would merely
divide the enemy’s force and nibble at the edges of the Confederacy, a move up
the Red River would drive a wedge through it. Banks objected that the Red River
route was out of the question in August. It was too hot for the survivors of the
Port Hudson siege to march across the state, he told Halleck, and water in the
river was too low to float transports. 2
In any case, Banks had already decided on sending a small force to seize the
mouth of the Sabine River on the Texas-Louisiana line. 3 The expedition sailed
from New Orleans on 4 September 1863, but when it attempted to land on the
Texas shore four days later, Confederate batteries disabled two of the gunboats
while two other vessels ran aground. The general commanding abandoned the
project after failing to get any of his twelve hundred troops ashore. Banks then
1 The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate
Armies, 70 vols. in 128 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), ser. 1, vol. 26,
pt. 1, pp. 651, 666, 672 (“for important reasons”), 673 (“and resulted”) (hereafter cited as OR).
2 OR, ser. 1, vol. 24, pt. 3, p. 584 (“as soon”); vol. 26, pt. 1, p. 696.
3 OR, ser. 1, vol. 26, pt. 1, p. 683.