Pleasant Hill, LA
Date(s):
April 9, 1864
Location:
Please click on link below for map.
Pleasant Hill, Sabine, Louisiana, United States
Campaign(s):
Red River Campaign [1864]
Battles in
Campaign:
Situation:
-
By April 1864, Maj. Gen.
Nathaniel P. Banks’ Red River Expedition had advanced about 150 miles
up Red River.
-
Maj. Gen. Richard
Taylor, commander of the Confederate forces in the area, decided,
without any instructions from his commander Gen. E.
Kirby Smith, that it was time to try to stop the Union drive.
-
Taylor's
forces were victorious at Mansfield on April 8th.
-
Banks withdrew
from that battlefield to Pleasant Hill, but he knew that fighting would resume
the next day.
Commanders:
-
Union:
Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks
-
Confederate:
Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor
Principal Forces:
-
Union:
Red River Expeditionary Force (Banks’
Department of the Gulf)
-
Confederate:
District of West Louisiana
Description:
-
Early on the 9th, Taylor’s reinforced forces
marched toward Pleasant Hill in the hopes of finishing the destruction of the
Union force.
-
Although outnumbered, Taylor felt that the Union
army would be timid after Mansfield and that an audacious, well-coordinated
attack would be successful.
-
The Confederates closed up, rested for a few
hours, and then attacked at 5:00 pm.
-
Taylor planned to send a force to assail the Union
front while he rolled up the left flank and moved his cavalry around the right
flank to cut the escape route.
-
The attack on the Union left flank, under the
command of Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Churchill, succeeded in sending those enemy
troops fleeing for safety.
-
Churchill ordered his men ahead, intending to
attack the Union center from the rear.
-
Union troops, however, discerned the danger and
hit Churchill’s right flank, forcing a retreat.
-
Pleasant Hill was the last major battle, in terms
of numbers of men involved, of the Louisiana phase of the Red River Campaign.
-
Although Banks won this battle, he retreated,
wishing to get his army out of west Louisiana before any greater calamity
occurred.
-
The battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill jointly
(although the former was much more decisive) influenced
Banks to forget his
objective of capturing Shreveport.
Slide Presentation:
None
Classification2:
B
Casualties3:
-
Union:
1,100
-
Confederate:
2,000
Results:
 Union
Victory
Battlefield Websites:
Recommended Resources:
1 National Park
Service summary.
2
Classification:
-
A
- having a decisive influence on a
campaign and a direct impact on the course of the war
-
B -
having a direct and decisive influence on their campaign
-
C -
having observable influence on the
outcome of a campaign
-
D
-
having a limited influence on the
outcome of their campaign or operation but achieving or affecting important
local objectives
3 Casualties are
someone killed, injured, wounded, captured or missing.
Revised
01/02/2009 |
