John Mead Gould: Red River Campaign Veteran

My intentions were to write a posting in recognition of the 150^th anniversary of the battle of Jenkins’ Ferry on April 30^th, but the “press of business” interfered. Instead, I'll focus on a Red River campaign veteran and his writings. John Mead Gould wrote the acclaimed A History of the First-Tenth-Twenty-ninth Maine Regiment published in 1871. Gould served in the eastern theater from April 1861 until May 1863, most notably experiencing combat at Cedar Mountain and Antietam. After the 10^th Maine Infantry mustered out, Gould enlisted in the 29^th Maine Infantry. Authorities mustered in the regiment in September 1863 and sent it several months later to New Orleans where it joined the 19^th Corps. Lieutenant Gould then participated in campaigning and then combat at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Cane River, and Mansura during the Red River Campaign. Following service in Louisiana, the regiment then fought in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

In 1997, the Butternut and Blue Press published The Civil War Journals Of John Mead Gould, 1861-1866 that were used extensively in the writing of his regimental history. The chapters on Gould’s service in Louisiana account for about 70 pages in this oversized 564 page book, and his entries tend to be lengthy and articulate ones.

He also had some interesting observations about Nathaniel Banks who is usually portrayed as incompetent (or worse) during the campaign. Earlier in the war, Gould served in a division commanded by Banks and then found himself again under Banks’ command in Louisiana. In his May 11, 1864 entry Gould wrote, “Gen’l Banks is a wonderful man. There is no one in the Army that has struck me as he does. He never has been brilliantly successful in any campaign and has retreated and lost ground and prisoners and had every kind of misfortune that a small army must have when opposed to one larger. Yet you never hear him evil spoken of as you do every other General, I mean you don’t hear his soldiers speak ill of him.

But the other day a man of the 116^th N. Y. who was at work on the dam suddenly quit his hold on a log he was lifting at and commenced damning Gen’l. Banks instead of damming Red River. Now Gen’l. Banks was right behind him in his slouch hat, cavalry pants and flannel blouse at work shoveling dirt or something of that kind and the blackguarding he received was too much for his feelings to receive without notice. So he went over to the New Yorker and took hold of the log himself saying ‘Keep your temper my good fellow! Keep cool! Old Corporal Banks has been in many a tighter place than this. He’ll get you all our right.’ And the man who told me the story said the New Yorker was so ashamed and conscience stricken that he was telling the incident to all he met as an atonement for his evil speech. Gen’l. Banks certainly keeps up his popularity wonderfully and he has the genius to back him up that some of our popular Generals haven’t got” (p. 345).

"by far the most desperate [engagement] I ever witnessed"

Today is the 150^th anniversary of the battle of Mansfield that is also known as Sabine Cross-Roads. This contest marked the first of a series of battles fought during the Red River campaign that resulted in Confederate troops forcing their Union opponents to retreat.

An earlier posting highlighted some of the better books about the campaign, but an interesting feature of works about the campaign is that they are often written from a Confederate perspective. In that regard, the historiography of the campaign reminds me of the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. I have contributed in a small way to this emphasis thanks to my history of the 28^th Texas Cavalry (dismounted) that served in Walker’s Texas division during the Red River campaign. Mouton’s Louisiana soldiers, Polignac’s Texans, and Walker’s Texans have received most of the attention, but what about their Union opposition?

The Fourth Division of the 13^th Army Corps bore the brunt of the Confederate assault at Mansfield and suffered most of the casualties. The Fourth Division regiments were not “green.” All of the units had seen service during the Vicksburg campaign, and the 48^th Ohio first experienced combat at Shiloh. William J. Landram, the division commander, wrote the words that make up the title of this blog posting; he was a Mexican War veteran and, like his men, saw duty during the Vicksburg campaign. His division totaled 2,413 infantry at the start of the battle and had an effective strength of 1,474 the next day. Here are the losses of his regiments:

Col. Frank Emerson’s 1^st Brigade:

77^th Illinois: 6 killed, 29 wounded, 136 captured or missing: 171

67^th Indiana: 4 killed, 20 wounded, 18 captured or missing: 42

19^th Kentucky: 2 killed, 18 wounded, 231 captured or missing: 251

23^rd Wisconsin: 7 killed, 16 wounded, 41 captured or missing: 64

Col. Joseph Vance’s 2^nd Brigade:

130^th Illinois: 2 killed, 23 wounded, 232 captured or missing: 257

48^th Ohio: 5 wounded, 174 captured or missing: 179

83^rd Ohio: 1 killed, 8 wounded, 22 captured or missing: 31

96^th Ohio: 4 killed, 23 wounded, 30 captured or missing: 57

On April 12^th, special field returns showed the severe impact of the battle on several of these regiments. The 19^th Kentucky had 142 present for duty; the 48^th Ohio totaled 98 present for duty; the 130^th Illinois numbered only 68 men. Often I read of “shattered” regiments. The battle of Mansfield truly wrecked several regiments on each side.

NOTE: The Landram quote and the statistics are all from the Official Records, vol. 34, pt. 1, pages 259, 264, 266, 292, 295.

Good Reads About The Red River Campaign

One-hundred and fifty years ago this month, the Red River Campaign started. The available literature on the campaign is surprisingly large, but there are three books that are particularly important in my opinion.

 

The granddaddy of the group is Ludwell H. Johnson’s Red River Campaign: Politics & Cotton in the Civil War. This was Dr. Johnson’s doctoral dissertation, and it was published in 1958. The book has stood the test of time because of the author’s research and his emphasis on military events as well as the political backdrop of the campaign. Another positive feature of the book is the author’s helpful annotated bibliography.

Dr. Gary Dillard Joiner’s One Damn Blunder From Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign of 1864 was published in 2003. Dr. Joiner incorporated traditional and more recent resources in his study, and there is a welcome emphasis on naval aspects of the campaign.

Dr. Joiner also was the general editor of Little to Eat And Thin Mud To Drink: Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs from the Red River Campaigns, 1863-1864 (2007). This is an interesting collection of civilian and soldier accounts of the campaign. Helpful appendices include a listing of naval vessels deployed during the campaign and a time line of the campaign. 

Cotton and a Disastrous Campaign

Not the type to mince words, Union Major General David Hunter assessed the aftermath of the Red River campaign in a telegram dated 2 May 1864 to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant:

“GENERAL: You told me to write you fully with regard to affairs in this department. I may write too freely, but where great and vital interests are at stake you must excuse me if I am very free. Knowing that your time is very precious, I shall briefly state the conclusions to which I have arrived:

First. The Department of the Gulf is one great mass of corruption. Cotton and politics, instead of the war, appear to have engrossed the army. The vital interests of the contest are laid aside, and we are amused with sham State governments, which are a complete laughing-stock to the people, and the lives of our men are sacrificed to the interests of cotton speculators.

Second. The vicious trade regulations, or the vicious administration of them, have filled the enemy’s country with all kinds of goods except military supplies, and these they have been smart enough to capture. If this course is continued we cannot look for a speedy termination of the war.

Third. The best interests of the service require that General McPherson, or some other competent commander, should be sent immediately here. Port Hudson and Natchez are both threatened, and unless prompt action is immediately taken we shall lose the navigation of the Mississippi. General Banks has treated me with great politeness and kindness, and I regret greatly to say anything prejudicial to him as a soldier or a gentleman, but a strong sense of an important duty compels me to speak. The most intelligent of the officers of the army and navy will, I think, fully concur in all I have said. General Banks has not certainly the confidence of his army…” (Official Records, vol. 34, pt. 3, p. 390).

Several books have been written about the Red River campaign, but the one that does the best job of discussing how a military campaign evolved from a mix of political goals, economic concerns, and the desire to make a quick buck is Ludwell H. Johnson’s Red River Campaign: Politics & Cotton in the Civil War published in 1958. Johnson recounts how the desire and need for cotton fueled a campaign that ended in a Union disaster in the piney woods of northwestern Louisiana in the spring of 1864.

Next time: how the cotton trade led to a mutiny in the spring of 1864.

A Simple Commemoration

The fall semester is over, and my holiday break has started! In honor of this momentous occasion, I started reading Little To Eat And Thin Mud To Drink: Letters, Diaries, and Memoirs from the Red River Campaigns, 1863-1864 (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2007), a book that has sat on my shelf for too long. The general editor of the book is Gary D. Joiner who is probably the leading expert today on the Red River campaign. The book itself is an interesting concept…a volume devoted entirely to primary accounts of a single Civil War campaign.

A passage about the commemoration of the battle of Mansfield caught my eye:

“The memories of the terrible struggle of the Civil War linger, particularly in the South. A victory such as the Battle of Mansfield was long celebrated, and even today the church bell at Christ Memorial Episcopal Church in Mansfield rings at 4 P. M. on April 8, as it has each year since the battle” (p. xxvii-xxviii).