April 9, 1864
---Battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana: Taylor’s Confederates pursue the retreating
Federals south until reaching the village of Pleasant Hill. Taylor has been reinforced by two small
divisions under Gen. Thomas Churchill. The
division of Mouton (who was killed the previous day) is put under the command
of Brig. Gen. Camille J. Polignac. At
this point, Gen. Banks arrives, with A.J. Smith’s divisions, and forms a
line. Neither army does much during the
day. Finally, at about 5:00 PM, Polignac
moves against the Federal right; Churchill and Walker go forward, and strike
the Federal line near the center, but the Federal left is hidden from their view
due to the heavy woods. The Rebels do
not realize they have been flanked by virtue of their own advance until the
right end of their line passes the 58th Illinois Regiment, lined up
perpendicularly to the Rebel advance.
The Illinois men strike at the Rebel flank, and then the rest of Smith’s
line surges forward, and drives the Yankees back, as the fighting goes on in
the dark. Smith sent a brigade in
pursuit, but late at night Banks gives orders for the entire army to withdraw
back to Grand Ecore. Smith is incredulous. The Rebels for their part, are demoralized
and in full rout. A Union tactical victory,
but a Confederate strategic victory, since Banks chooses to retreat in the face
of victory. Banks offers reasons for his
retreat: the supply train has been sent south at the beginning of the battle,
and has gone too far to be brought back soon enough for the Yankees, who are
out of food and out of water.
Losses: Killed Wounded Captured/Missing Total
U.S. 150
844 375 1,369
C.S. 1,200 426 1,626
---The
CSS Squib, a David-style torpedo
boat, attempts an attack on the USS Minnesota,
just off Newport News, Virginia. It
explodes a torpedo against the Minnesota’s
hull, but the U.S. ship survives, and the Squib
escapes.
---Charles
Wright Wills, a young officer in Thomas’s Army of the Cumberland, writes in his
journal about his regiment re-enlisting, and how disciplinarians are voted out
of the officer ranks---and of a Rebel woman who lives off of Federal rations:
The day of jubilee has come at this post; that is,
we have, once more, something fit to eat. This is the first day since we’ve
been here that our commissary has furnished us with aught but regular rations.
We can wish for nothing now, except “marching orders.” My men are in splendid
condition. Everyone of them in A1 health and spirits. All the veterans of the
division are back, except the three regiments of our brigade. The 55th Illinois
has at last concluded to veteran. Two hundred of them will be at home shortly.
They held a new election, left Malmsberg and Chandler out in the cold, and I
understand, a goodly number of their best officers besides. Men who have not
been under good disciplinarians, will almost invariably, if an election is
allowed, choose good fellows for officers. That is, men who allow everything to
go at loose ends, who have no business whatever with commissions. Captain Milt.
Hainey and Captain Augustine, I understand, are to be colonel and lieutenant
colonel of the 55th. They are said to be good men and officers, and exceptions
to the above, but my experience is such exceptions are rare, and I’d rather
time would prove them than man’s words. I believe my company would veteran,
almost unanimously, to-day. I am still on court-martial duty, and having a very
easy time. We seldom sit over two hours, and never more than four hours a day. .
. . I met a woman to-day who prides herself on belonging to one of the first
families of Virginia and boasts that her grandsire’s plantation and George
Washington’s almost joined, and showed me a negro woman 110 years old, that
formerly waited upon George Washington. She claims to be chivalry, par
excellence. Her husband is in the Rebel Army. She lives off of the United
States Commissary Department, and begs her chewing tobacco of United States
soldiers. She’s a Rebel, and talks it with her mouth full of Uncle Sam’s bread
and bacon.
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