War Along the Bayous: The 1864 Red River Campaign in Louisiana

by William Riley Brooksher

War Along the Bayous is the compelling story of the largest military operation west of the Mississippi River during the American Civil War.

The Union Army's Red River Campaign and Camden Expedition of 1864 were intended to drive the Confederates from Louisiana and Arkansas and to discourage any territorial designs Napoleon III of France might have on the American Southwest. This large-scale, two-pronged operation was a complicated, combined-operations affair that had army and naval forces in Louisiana driving north to Shreveport to link up with a second army descending from Arkansas. Undertaken at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, and with poor planning, organization, and execution, no major operation during the war had less to recommend it. War Along the Bayous concentrates on the Louisiana portion of this ill-advised campaign that resulted in heavy losses and very nearly turned into a complete disaster for the Union.

With a novelist's sense of drama, William Riley Brooksher vividly details the fierce clashes at Mansfield (aka Sabine Crossroads), Pleasant Hill, and Yellow Bayou, and the destruction of Natchitoches and Alexandria. His latest contribution fills an significant gap in the Civil War literature.

Genres: Civil War, American Civil War, American History, History, Nonfiction, Transmississippi

287 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1998

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

When all is said and done, the 1864 Red River Campaign amounts to little more than a gigantic cotton raid. This book details that raid and some of the personalities involved. We meet Nathaniel Banks, a Union general with presidential ambitions. We meet Kirby Smith, a Confederate fighting for what he sees as a just cause. We also see the role this campaign plays in a presidential election year. Overall, a very good book.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good and interesting history of this small campaign; however, it might have been helpful if an order of battle had been included.

[George Noland II · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adequate depiction of the 1864 Red River Campaign in Louisiana. Understandably, Federal General Nathanial Banks, a political appointment, was a poor campaign leader. However, Confederate General Kirby Smith, a West Point graduate, did not fare much better in the decision-making department. Their subordinates, Union’s A.J. Smith and Confederate Dick Taylor, proved the better generals during this campaign. Admiral Porter’s, the Navy’s, and speculator’s cotton obsession was no help to the Union campaign. At times, author spent too much time in the weeds which slowed the pacing of the book.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Red River Campaign of 1864 is one fraught with infamy and bumbling, but also heroic struggle. Brooksher does a good job in showing that while many (like Banks and Kirby Smith) that come in for criticism from this campaign also did some creditable things, many of the leaders that did receive credit (such as Taylor and A. J. Smith) also deserve some critique.

What we get is a pretty well balanced, easily readable account of the Red River Campaign. Brooksher does a good job showing that while the Union completely failed to achieve their objectives for the campaign, the Union Army and Navy fought well throughout most of it. Also, while the Union defeat was a big morale booster for the Confederacy, it ultimately didn't change the strategic picture much, and cost the Confederate Army a number of their most capable brigade and division-level leaders in the Trans-Mississippi Department.

The main weakness of the book is that it really could have used stronger editing. While Brooksher's narrative is fine, his writing sometimes rambles. The way the writing is layed out on the pages is also a bit irritating, with no breaks between paragraphs. For me, it felt compressed, and a little jumbled. Slightly better physical organization of the text would have made a big difference in how it read.

[WKOCH · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adequate and readable account of the Red River Campaign from a high level, but gets a bit sloppy at the level of finer details. Could certainly have used a tighter copy-editor. Gideon Welles is spelled as "Wells" multiple times, John Bullock Clark Jr. becomes "John P. Clark" on p. 113, spelling errors such as "convey" instead of convoy or "pursers" instead of pursuers. Page 16 states "[Richard] Taylor, whose first wife was the sister of Jefferson Davis" when it's actually the reverse - Davis's first wife was Taylor's sister.

But these minor issues aside, the I didn't have any quibbles with the higher-level coverage of the campaign. Better coverage of the Camden Expedition would have been nice, but the decision to focus on Banks' campaign is a reasonable editorial decision. It also helps that Brooksher's work is much more readable than Ludwell Johnson's earlier work on the campaign, which bogs down in the cotton speculation and politics aspect of the campaign frequently.