71

[William H. Emory.]

A general's manuscript report on the Battle of Mansfield and the failed Red River campaign.

No place, circa late 1864
11 manuscript pages on 6 loose sheets of lined note paper, 12½ x 8 inches, in an unknown hand with numerous revisions; folds, minor edge wear, light paper clip stain.

  • Notes: "It was now night, & there was not a sound in front of us except the rumble of the retreating artillery wagons & the groans of the wounded." 


    This report dissects the Union Army's failed Red River Campaign in northern Louisiana under General Nathaniel Banks. 


    The author starts by questioning the fundamental strategy of the campaign to take Shreveport: "The plan was in violation of one of the first principles of war. . . . The Army commanded by General Banks and the Army commanded by General Steele were to unite in the destruction of this stronghold and the army which defended it. Instead of uniting at some point before meeting the enemy, each took up a line of march in such opposite directions that it was apparent that the enemy would do just what he did, fight one army first and then the other." 


    The heart of this report is a dramatic account of the role of the XIX Corp's 1st Division in the 8 April 1864 Battle of Mansfield. The battle began when a miles-long Union column was attacked at the head, sending the leading XIII Corps into a panicked retreat. Emory's division did its best to rally the troops and set up a line of battle: 


    "I met Gen. Ransom [of XIII Corps] coming to the rear in an ambulance, wounded & I thought that there were rather more attending that gallant officer than looked well. . . . We had not gone far before I met a crowd of fugitives well mounted, mostly servants and civil employees coming rapidly to the rear, shouting to the men to turn back and that all was lost. Intermixed with them  & close behind there were masses of cavalrymen in a complete state of disorganization. I ordered the leading command to fix bayonettes without halting & the bands to strike up. . . . We began to meet broken and disorganized masses of infantry." Finding a good spot to make a stand, "I led forward in person the 161st N.Y. . . . & deployed it as skirmishers to hold the enemy in check while the line was being formed. . . . The 161st was driven in, and close on their heels came three columns of the enemy, rushing and yelling as if they had everything their own way. My line then opened on them, & in 15 minutes we had completely repulsed them and driven them off the ground. It was now night, & there was not a sound in front of us except the rumble of the retreating artillery wagons & the groans of the wounded." 


    The author of this report was apparently Brigadier General William H. Emory of XIX Corps, who began the campaign in command of the 1st Division and then assumed acting command of the corps soon after General Franklin was wounded at the Battle of Mansfield. His role in saving the Union Army from a total disaster at Mansfield is well known. 


    The report is an unsigned draft, and does not appear to be in Emory's hand. It was written in reaction to negative press reports on the campaign which began circulating shortly before the author's transfer to the Virginia theater: "At Simmesport, we first met the accounts as given to the public of the Red River expedition. These accounts were so unjust to the Corps which I commanded that I was induced to issue an order" which drew the objection of General Banks. The author notes in closing that he lacks access to his full correspondence, "the records of the 19th A.C. prior to my leaving New Orleans being still there."
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