Efforts to Capture Charleston: Grand Ecore and Porter's

Some weeks later, General Forrest, having an enlarged command, made a rapid raid through Tennessee and Kentucky; and on the 13th of April he laid siege to Fort Pillow, on the Mississippi, above Memphis, which was garrisoned chiefly by colored troops. He assailed it successfully, with a cry of "No quarter;" and when the garrison threw down their arms and begged for mercy, they were nearly all slaughtered. "Forrest's motto," said Major Charles W. Gibson, of his command, to the writer, was, "War means fight, and fight means kill--we want but few prisoners." An unsuccessful attempt was made to intercept him in his retreat from the scene of the massacre. Troops sent out from Memphis, a few weeks later, by General Smith, to hunt him up and beat him, in Mississippi, were defeated in a severe battle with him on the 10th June, at Gun Town, on the Mobile and Ohio Railway, and were driven back with great loss. Twelve thousand men, led by General A.J. Smith, went out for the same purpose, and fought and defeated Forrest near Tupelo on the 14th June, and then retreated to Memphis; and not long afterward, when Smith was in Mississippi with ten thousand men, the bold raider, at the head of three thousand cavalry, flanked him, dashed in to Memphis in broad daylight, in search of National officers, and escaped into Mississippi.

At the beginning of 1864, another attempt was made to recover Texas, by an invasion by way of the Red River and Shreveport. General Banks was ordered to organize an expedition for the purpose, and General Sherman was directed to send troops to aid him. Admiral Porter was also directed to place a fleet of gun-boats on the Red River to assist in the enterprise; and General Steele, at Little Rock, Arkansas, was ordered to co-operate with the expedition. Bank's column, led by General Franklin, moved from Brashear City by way of Opelousas, and reached Alexandria on the 26th of March. The detachment from Sherman's army, led by General A.J. Smith, had already gone up the Red River in transports, captured Fort de Russy, and taken possession of Alexandria on the 16th of March, followed by Porter's fleet of gun-boats.

Banks moved forward with his whole force; and early in April the army was at Natchitoches, eighty mils further up the river, at which point Porter's vessels arrived, after encountering much difficulty in passing the rapids at Alexandria on account of low water. His larger gun-boats could proceed no further than Grand Ecore. Banks pushed on toward Shreveport, and Porter's lighter vessels went up the river with a body of troops under E. Kilby Smith. The Confederates had been gathering force under Generals Taylor, Price and Green, and were driven before the nationals until they reached Sabine Cross Roads, where they made a stand on the 8th of April. A sharp battle ensued between them and the advance of Bank's army. There was a hard struggle for the mastery. Franklin's troops came to the aid of the latter late in the afternoon; but their antagonists fought so well and desperately that the wholebody of the Nationals were routed, with heavy loss, and fled n some confusion. Then fugitives were received three miles from the battle-field, at a place called Pleasant Grove, by the division of General Emory; and there another severe engagement took place, in which the Nationals were victorious. The later fell back, however, fifteenmiles, pursued by the Confederates; and the next day (April 9) another heavy battle was fought at Pleasant Hill, which resulted in a victory for Banks. That officer now wished to renew the march for Texas; but his associates counseled a still further retreat to the Red River, at Grand Ecore, where Porter's larger vessels lay. There they were joined by the troops under E. Kilby Smith, that went up the river in transports, and had some sharp fighting.

The river was still falling. Food and water for man and beast, in that region, could not be procured excepting with great difficulty, and it was determined to continue the retreat to Alexandria. After much difficulty the fleet passed the bar at Grand Ecore on the 17th of April. The army moved from that point on the 21st, and entered Alexandria on the 27th, after an encounter with the Confederates at the passage of the Cane River. So many difficulties lay before the National army, that the expedition against Shreveport was abandoned, and the land and naval forces prepared to return to the Mississippi River.