History of the Nineteenth Army CorpsIrwin, Richard B. (Richard Biddle)
History
History of the Nineteenth Army Corps
Irwin, Richard B. (Richard Biddle)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Regimental histories; United States. Army. Corps, 19th
Weitzel, who, as far as Saint Martinville, had led the advance of
the main column, followed by Emory with Paine and Ingraham, there
took the road to the left and halted on the evening of the 17th of
April at Côte Geleé, four miles in the rear of Grover. The next
morning Weitzel moved up to Grover's support, while Banks, with
Emory, rested at Côte Geleé to await the rebuilding of the bridge.
From St. Martinville, Emory sent the 173d New York, under Major
Gallway, with Norris's section of Duryea's battery, to follow the
Teche road to Breaux Bridge and endeavor to capture the bayou
steamboats, five in number, that were still left to the Confederates.
Five miles below the village of that name, Gallway met a small
Confederate picket, and pushing it aside, soon afterward found the
bridge over the bayou in flames. On the morning of the 18th he
learned that four of the boats had been burned by the Confederates,
and about the same time his farther advance was stopped by orders
from Banks, despatched as soon as it was known that Grover had been
brought to a stand. A courier from headquarters having lost his
way in the night of the 18th, on the following morning Gallway
found himself in the air without any apparent object. He accordingly
marched along the banks of the Teche and the Bayou Fusilier, and
taking the road to Opelousas, there rejoined Paine on the 1st.
On the 19th of April the army crossed the Vermilion and the Carencro,
and marched unopposed sixteen miles over the prairie to Grand
Coteau. Gooding's brigade rejoined Emory during the day.
On the 20th the march was continued about eight miles to Opelousas.
Just outside the town the Corps went into bivouac, after throwing
forward all the cavalry, the 13th Connecticut, and a section of
Rodgers's battery, to Washington, on the Courtableau.
On the same day, after a brief engagement, Cooke, with the gunboats
_Estrella, Arizona_, and _Calhoun_, and a detachment of four
companies of the 16th New Hampshire from Brashear, captured Fort
Burton at Butte-à-la-Rose, with its garrison of 60 men of the
Crescent regiment and its armament of two 32-pounders; thus at last
gaining the complete control of the Atchafalaya, and at the same
time opening communication with Banks by way of Port Barré or
Barré's Landing on the Courtableau, distant about nine miles
northeasterly from Opelousas. Then Cooke steamed up the Atchafalaya
to make his report to Farragut, lying in the Mississippi off the
mouth of the Red River, and to seek fresh orders.
At the outset of the campaign the 16th New Hampshire had been
detached from Ingraham's brigade of Emory and left at Brashear to
guard the main depots and the surplus baggage. After the battle
of Bisland, the 4th Massachusetts was turned back to Brashear to
relieve the 16th New Hampshire. This regiment having assisted in
the capture of Butte-à-la-Rose, now formed the garrison of that
desolate and deadly hummock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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