Seventy Days of Almost Uninterrupted Fighting, When the Singing of the Bullets was the Only Music Heard from Morning till Night.—General Banks Criticised.—How General Smith’s Division Became Known as Smith’s Guerrillas.—Fighting A. J. Smith.—General Banks Anxious to Get Back to New Orleans.

A Graphic Account of the Campaign told by T. W. Holman.

ABOUT the 5th of March, the regiment having returned to Vicksburg from the Meridian Campaign, the veterans were sent home on a thirty days’ furlough. Those of the regiment who did not re-enlist, about one hundred, and about one hundred and forty recruits, were assigned to the 24th Missouri for duty. The 24th Missouri belonged to Col. Shaw’s brigade and was designated the 2d Brigade, 3d Division, 16th Corps, and was composed of the following named regiments: The 14th, 27th and 32d Iowa, and 24th Missouri, with the detachment of the 21st Missouri. The 21st Missouri men were consolidated and made three companies, about eighty men to the company. There being no commissioned officers with us, Lieuts. Denny, Yarbrough and Shadel, officers of the 24th, were assigned to command the three companies of the 21st.Gen. Banks having called on Gen. Sherman for ten thousand men to assist him in the Red River Campaign, the 1st Division, 17th Corps, Gen. Joe Mower commanding, and the 3d Division, 16th Corps, Col. R. C. Moore, of the 117th Illinois, commanding, under Gen. A. J. Smith, were assigned to this duty, and ordered to report to Gen. Banks. The expedition left Vicksburg about the 8th of March, reached the mouth of Red river on the 12th, and was there met by Admiral Porter with a gun boat fleet. Under convoy of the same the expedition started up Red river, reaching Simm’s Landing, on the Atchafalaya river, about 5 p. m. Col. Shaw was ordered to disembark his brigade and picket the road towards Fort De Russy. March 13th Col. Shaw was ordered to move out on the Fort De Russy road. He advanced with his brigade along Bayou Rapides about four miles to Yellow Bayou. Here he found some earth works and a regiment of Confederate troops, with two pieces of artillery. On our approach they at once fell back towards Fort De Russy. We then returned to the landing. During our absence the balance of our troops disembarked and went into camp.

On the 14th we had orders to move with two days’ rations and forty rounds of ammunition, and 7 a. m. found us on the road with Col. Shaw’s brigade in the advance, the 24th and 21st Missouri in front. It was about eighteen miles across the bend of Red river, where rumor reported heavy earthworks and forts, and some six thousand Confederate troops under command of Gen. Walker. The roads were good and our column moved rapidly, reaching Fort De Russy about 3 p. m. Col. Shaw’s brigade went into line some four hundred yards from the upland fort, with the 3d Indiana battery in the center. We met a warm reception from fourteen guns in the upland fort and from heavy guns in the water battery. We advanced sharpshooters and our Indiana battery of four guns and commenced pounding away on the upland fort. By 5 p. m. our sharpshooters had the guns in the forts silenced, or at least made it such hazardous work to load and fire that the guns were only served occasionally. This was the signal for the assault. About 6 p. m. Gen. Mower ordered Col. Shaw to charge. His brigade fixed bayonets and with a yell made a dash for the enemy’s works. The ground over which we had to pass was open, the timber having been used in the construction of the forts and bomb proofs. In our charge we were supported by the balance of our division. While charging we received a fringe of musket fire from the thin line of men inside the fort. In three minutes we were at the ditches and the garrison, seeing that further resistance was useless, ran up a white flag. The 24th and 21st Missouri were the first regiments to plant their flags on the fort, and in recognition of that fact and as a reward, we were detailed the guard of honor and remained in the fort during the night, with our regimental colors flying on the ramparts.

The fruits of the victory were: in the upland fort, fourteen guns; in the water battery, three guns, two of them 120 pounders, and one rifle 42, a large amount of ammunition and quartermaster’s stores, with three hundred and fifty prisoners. Commodore Porter, who was on his way up the river with his gun boat fleet, did not get up in time to participate in the capture. About ten miles below the forts the enemy had driven piling and anchored a large raft of timber across the channel of the river, preventing his arrival.

During the night our transports arrived, and at 10 a. m. on the 15th we hauled down our colors, marched out of the fort and embarked with the balance of the troops, and again, under convoy of the gun boats, moved up the river to Alexandria, arriving there about 4 p. m. on the 16th. The enemy fell back, burning some of his quartermaster’s stores and forage. We disembarked and went into camp east and south of town, to await the coming of Maj. Gen. Banks with the 13th and 19th Army Corps.

Alexandria was a small town of some eight hundred inhabitants, situated at the foot of the rapids of the river. The country around Alexandria was very rich and the inhabitants very disloyal and bitter. We now had to wait until about March 25th for the coming of Gen. Banks to form a junction with Gen. Smith at this place. Gen. Banks’ troops were leisurely marching across the country from the south, and upon his arrival with the 13th and 19th corps, our combined forces of all arms consisted of about 35,000 men. Gen. Banks’ men having been doing garrison duty at New Orleans, were well clothed, and with their new uniforms and paper collars made a very fine appearance compared with the men of the 16th Corps, who had been fighting and marching for the past three months and were ragged and dirty, which condition no doubt had much to do with influencing Gen. Banks to remark when he saw us, “Why! I asked Gen. Sherman to send me 10,000 soldiers and he has sent me a band of ragamuffins and guerrillas.” This is where, and how it came to pass that we received the name which stuck to us until the close of the war. Intended in derision by Gen. Banks, no doubt, it soon became a pseudonym by which one of the best divisions in the western army was ever afterwards known, “Smith’s Guerrillas.”

March 26th we broke camp and marched up the river. It was now generally known that Shrevesport was our objective point—a strongly fortified position. March 29th we reached and camped at a point on Red River known as the Burr Patch. We here again embarked on transports and under convoy of gunboats moved up the river to a landing called Grand Ecore. At this point we disembarked and lay in camp till the 7th of April, when we moved out in the rear of Gen. Banks’ army, which had passed this point some two days. It seemed that we had made such an unfavorable impression on Gen. Banks that he wished us as much out of sight as possible and hence kept us about a day’s march in the rear.

Battle of Sabine Cross Roads.

The 13th Corps encountered in force at Sabine Cross Roads, on the 8th of April, Generals Kirby Smith and Taylor, commanding the enemy, who were apprised of the fact that Gen. Banks’ troops were scattered along the road for twenty miles. Upon this knowledge they determined to give battle outside the defenses at Shrevesport, and chose this point, about forty-five miles southeast. The result of the battle was a complete defeat and route of Gen. Banks’ army in detail. The night of the 8th of April closed in with the 13th and 19th Corps in full retreat, falling back on Pleasant Hill. The 16th Corps, under Gen. A. J. Smith, had marched hard all day the 8th, reaching Pleasant Hill at dark, and went into camp in close column by regiments. We had heard Gen. Banks’ artillery all the afternoon of the 8th, and knew he was being driven back. This meant that the men whom Gen. Banks had called guerrillas would be in demand on the morrow.

Battle of Pleasant Hill.

On the morning of the 9th of April Gen. Smith’s guerrillas had no revielle. About 3 a. m. our company officers came around nudging the sleeping men in the sides, in commands given in whispers ordered them to fall in line, and we were held in readiness to move. At daylight Col. Shaw’s brigade moved out on the Mansfield road about one mile, relieving our cavalry, who were already skirmishing. We were posted in a strong position along the east side of a cotton field, facing west, with a section of the 25th N. Y. Battery. We lay in this position all the forenoon with nothing to relieve the monotony except an occasional shell from our artillery feeling for the enemy in the woods beyond and frequent shots from the enemy’s sharpshooters. About 2 p. m. the enemy opened on our line with artillery. Our two pieces of artillery at once limbered up and went to the rear under whip. The enemy, thinking this was a continuation of the rout of the day before, charged our lines with a regiment of Texas cavalry. They, little dreaming that in the timber on the other side of the field lay a line of grim veterans who had seen service at Fort Donelson, Corinth, the Hornet’s Nest at Shiloh, and in the trenches around Vicksburg, made a magnificent charge to defeat and death. The enemy’s infantry then charged and our small brigade was soon fighting in front and flank. We held our position until the enemy had nearly cut us off from our main line, when we were compelled to fall back. We took a position two hundred and fifty yards from our first stand, which we held for over an hour and a half. Here occurred the most desperate fighting of the day, being almost a face to face combat. Overwhelming numbers at last forced us back to our reserve line, after losing quite a number taken prisoners. About sundown the final crash came when the enemy dashed against our massed line of artillery and infantry held in reserve. Night closed in with Smith’s guerrillas victorious and the enemy in full retreat towards Mansfield. The heaviest loss in the battle fell on Shaw’s brigade, being estimated at two thirds of the whole loss sustained in the engagement, amounting to some five hundred men killed, wounded and taken prisoners. The enemy’s loss was estimated at one thousand killed and wounded, eight hundred prisoners and eleven pieces of artillery.

While Smith’s guerrillas were fighting the battle of Pleasant Hill, Gen. Banks, with the 13th and 19th Corps, were improving the time in retreating. After caring for our wounded by placing them in hospitals and detailing surgeons and nurses from our ranks to care for them, about noon of the 10th we commenced to fall back towards Grand Ecore, following Gen. Banks’ army, which had preceded us, a shameful retreat and one that would never have been made had Gen. A. J. Smith been commander-in-chief. But Gen. Banks was whipped and thoroughly incompetent to command, and seemed to only have one idea—that was to get back to New Orleans as quickly as possible. His men under him seemed to share fully his demoralized condition. The 16th Corps were saucy and full of fight and had the utmost confidence in Gen. Smith, a feeling that was mutual between the commander and the men under him. We arrived at Grand Ecore on the 12th, and learning that our transports and gunboats were cooped up at Blair’s Landing, some twenty miles up the river, with some of the transports aground and a confederate battery below them, Gen. A. J. Smith at once crossed the river and hurried to their relief with the 16th Corps. After driving away the battery below and seeing the fleet safely on their way down the river, we returned to Grand Ecore and on the 22d of April took up our line of retreat for Alexandria. During this time Generals Kirby Smith and Taylor, commanding the Confederate forces, had not been idle, but were moving troops down the river to harass our retreat as much as possible. On the 23d we had a lively skirmish with them at Coulterville. Again at Monett Bluff April 23d. Here we found the enemy posted in a strong position on the bluff on the east side of the river. The 16th Corps was guarding the rear; the 13th and 19th Corps failing to drive the enemy, we were ordered up from the rear, forming on the right of the 19th Corps, fixed bayonets and charged. The enemy fell back and gave us for the time undisputed possession of the right of way. It was here that Gen. A. J. Smith informed Gen. Banks, in language more forceful than eloquent, that he would do the fighting at either end of the line of retreat, front or rear, but would not do both. We resumed our march on the 24th, the 16th Corps guarding the rear, without much trouble from the Johnnies, but when they pushed us too closely we would form a line of battle and they would very prudently keep at a safe distance. In this manner we continued to retreat to Alexandria, reaching there about April 30th.