YELLOW BAYOU, Engagement at, and Banks' Retreat from Alexandria. General Banks arrived at Alexandria, La., on his retreat from Sabine Cross Roads, 25 April 1864. Three days later General Hunter handed him an order from General Grant to close up the campaign against Shreveport without delay and return A. J. Smith's troops to General Sherman, for operations east of the Mississippi. Hunter re turned with a letter from Banks to Grant with the information that Porter's fleet was above the Alexandria Rapids in a critical situation should the army abandon it. As to the further prosecu tion of the Shreveport and Texas campaign that was not to be thought of, and Banks turned his attention to getting Porter's fleet below the rapids. These falls were a mile in length, filled with rugged rocks, which at the time were nearly hare. As the vessels needed at least seven feet of water to float them, they seemed to be doomed. The plans for their release were suggested and executed by Licut -Col. Joseph Bailey of the Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry. The work began on 30 April, nearly the entire army at different times being detailed for the duty; 2.000 to 3,000 lumbermen from Maine and the Northwest cut down trees; others were set to collecting stones, bricks, etc., including whole houses and sugar-mills with all their machinery and kettles, and in a week a dam of timber and stone, with sunken barges in the centre, had been constructed across the river, 758 feet in width, raising the water from five to seven feet deep on the rapids. The work had been prose cuted day and night, the men working up to their waists and exposed to a hot sun. The water having risen, three gunboats and another vessel ran down the rapids on the afternoon of 8 May and lay to just above the dam. Early in the morning of the 9th two of the barges broke loose, making a gap in the dam 66 feet wide, through which the water rushed in a great torrent, and the four vessels went down safely through the opening. Six gunboats and two tugs were still above the rapids, waiting for a higher rise in the water. The damage to the dam was partially repaired and wing-dams were constructed on the upper falls, which shed the water from either side into the channel between then's. They were completed by the 11th, when the water had risen to six and a half feet. Meanwhile the heavier vessels had been lightened by stripping from them their armor-plates and landing sonic of the heavy guns, ammunition, chain cables, anchors and provisions, and on the 12th all the vessels had run down the falls and through the dam into deeper water. Meanwhile the Confederates had gotten in Banks' front, south of Alexandria, and taken position on the river 25 miles below the town, where 1 May they captured and sunk a transport, and on the morn ing of the 3d captured a transport, on her way up the river with 425 men of the 129th Ohio on board. Some of the men were killed and wounded, all the officers and 270 men were captured. On the evening of the 4th another transport carrying 400 men of the 56th Ohio, while going down the river, convoyed by the gunboats Signal and Covington, was attacked by artillery and musketry, and the gunboats went to her assistance. About 125 men on the
transport were killed and wounded; she was soon disabled; the Covington, after losing mote than half her men, was abandoned and burned; the Signal also was disabled and, with the trans port, surrendered. No further attempt was made to run the blockade, and for two weeks Banks' communication with the Mississippi was closed. The fleet having passed -below the falls and the river rising insuring a safe passage of all the bars below, the gunboats and transports started on the morning of the 13th of May, and in the afternoon Banks marched out of Alexandria for Simsport. From the start his front, flanks and rear were harassed by cavalry and artillery, and on the 16th 'he had a severe engagement near Mansura, in which the Confederates were driven from position they had taken across the road to Simsport, which place his advance reached on the evening of the 17th. Here it was found that the pontoon-bridge was too short to span the Atchafalaya and Colonel Bailey again im provised a crossing. The transports were ranged side by side across the river, with the planking of the pontoons laid across their bows, making a level road of about 700 yards, over which the main body of the army with its trains and artillery began passing on the 19th. While this bridge was under construction A. J. Smith's command was drawn up in line at Yel low Bayou, covering the rear of the army and the crossing of the Atchafalaya. Here Smith's troops were attacked on the afternoon of the Ihth by General Wharton's cavalry and General Polignac's infantry. Smith's skirmishers were driven in, and at first the Confederates gained some advantage; hut General Mower, who was in immediate command of the Union line, made a counter-charge with two brigades of infantry and one of cavalry and the Confederate attack was repulsed. In endeavoring to follow up his success Mower was checked by a heavy artillery fire, and withdrew to a thicket, where he formed a new line and brought up artillery. The Con federates .renewed the attack and were repulsed with some loss. The thicket now took fire and made an impassable barrier between the two sides, and Mower withdrew, leaving his dead and wounded on the field. The Union loss was 38 killed, 226 wounded, and three missing; the Confederate loss, 452 killed, wounded and miss ing, of whom 180 were taken prisoners. The army had all crossed the Atchafalaya on the 20th. Banks yielded the command to General Canby, who had been ordered to relieve him; the navy and transports passed into the Mississippi; and the Red River campaign, one of the most humil iating of the war, had ended. On the return march from Alexandria the Union loss was about 165 killed, 650 wounded, and 450 captured or missing. General Taylor says the Confed erate loss in the entire campaign, from Sabine Cross Roads to Yellow Bayou, was 3,976. Con sult Official Records,' Vol. XXXIV; Taylor, 'Destruction and Reconstruction); Mahan, A. T., 'The Gulf and Inland Waters); The Century Company's 'Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,' Vol. IV.