The North had an infantry division covering naval transports, and gunboats; the South deployed a cavalry division.

The Confederates lost about 200 for Union losses of 7.

After the battle of Pleasant Hill on April 9, Brig. Gen. Tom Green led his men to Pleasant Hill Landing on the Red River, where, about 4:00 pm on April 12, they discovered grounded and damaged Union transports and gunboats, the XVI and XVII army corps river transportation, and U.S. Navy gunboats, with supplies and armament aboard. Union Brig. Gen. Thomas Kilby Smith’s Provisional Division, XVII Corps and the Navy gunboats were covering the army transports.

Green and his men charged the boats. When Green attacked, Smith’s men used great ingenuity in defending the boats and dispersing the enemy. Hiding behind bales of cotton, sacks of oats, and other improvised obstructions the men on the vessels, along with the Navy gunboats, repelled the attack, killed Green, and savaged the Confederate ranks. The Confederates withdrew and most of the Union transports continued downriver.

On the 13th, at Campti, other boats ran aground and came under enemy fire from Brig. Gen. St. John R. Liddell’s Sub-District of North Louisiana troops, which harassed the convoy throughout the 12th and 13th. The convoy rendezvoused with Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks’s army at Grand Ecore, providing the army with badly needed supplies.

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eHistory Staff

Selected sources:
American Battlefield Protection Program, Heritage Preservation Services, National Park Service.