May God Have Mercy On Us...: The Twenty Days of the Cane River Campaign in Louisiana

In April 1864 in the state of Louisiana, the armies of both the Union and the Confederacy were in total disarray. With a Southern victory at Mansfield and a marginal win by the North at Pleasant Hill, the Red River Campaign was effectively over. The Union Army under Banks and the Navy under Porter were in a full retreat southward. The Southern Army was divided. Instead of dedicating the full resources to pursue the Yankees, Confederate General Kirby Smith turned his attention northward. He split his troops under General Richard Taylor and led three divisions up into Arkansas instead of focusing on the final defeat and capture of the Northern troops, munitions, and naval vessels. After entrenching at Grand Ecore, Banks led his troops southward along the Cane River toward a conflict with Confederate General Bee at a crossing known as Monett s Ferry. Any number of wonderful books have been written that document the entire Red River Campaign of the Civil War. Most give the Battle of Monett s Ferry only a paragraph or two in the overall affair, if that. In reality, the entire Cane River episode of the war lasted for almost a month and included a myriad of confrontations from minor skirmishes to all-out battle, a near-mutiny on the side of the North, a struggle for ships to escape down the Red River, and a wave of wanton destruction through what is now Natchitoches Parish. This book brings together all the elements of the war that took place along the Cane River in Louisiana in the spring of 1864. Whenever possible, the story is told in the words of the people who actually lived it the soldiers and officers through their diaries, letters, and journal entries. Welcome to the month of hell that took place from the high cliffs of Grand Ecore all the way down to the ill-fated city of Alexandria The Cane River Campaign.