ATTACK ON PORT HUDSON, LA.
May 27, 1863.
It having been understood that a grand and simultaneous attack from every part of the lines encircling Port Hudson was to be made on Wednesday, the 27th, General Augur, as early as 6 A. M. of that day, commenced a heavy cannonade upon the works, which continued incessantly until 2 o’clock, P. M.
At 10 o’clock, General Weitzel’s brigade, with the division of General Grover—reduced to about two brigades—and the division of General Emory, temporarily reduced by detachments to about a brigade, under command of Colonel Paine, with two regiments of colored troops, made an assault upon the right of the enemy’s works, crossing Sandy creek, and driving them through the woods into their fortifications. The fight lasted on this line until 4 o’clock, and was very severely contested. Brigadier-General Sherman, who intended to commence his assault at the same time on the left, had his troops in readiness.
General Augur’s assaulting forces consisted only of Colonel E. P. Chapin’s brigade, viz., the Forty-eighth Massachusetts, led by Lieutenant-colonel O’Brien; the Forty-ninth Massachusetts, by Colonel F. W. Bartlett; the One Hundred and Sixteenth New York, led by Major Love; and the Twenty-first Maine, by Colonel Johnson; also two regiments of Colonel Dudley’s brigade, called up from the right, viz., the Second Louisiana, under Colonel Paine; and parts of the Fiftieth Massachusetts, under Colonel Messer.
Before commencing the assault Captain Holcomb’s Vermont battery played upon the works to draw their fire, which he did very effectively; and then the order for the assault was given. A number of brave fellows from each regiment had volunteered to go in advance with the fascines, for the purpose of making a roadway through the moat; these were immediately followed by others who had volunteered to form the assaulting party; and after them the various regiments with their colonels, all under the immediate direction of Major-General Augur.
The scene that presented itself to the view as the devoted men emerged from the wood was really appalling. Between them and the fortifications to be assaulted lay an immense open space, at least a mile in length, from right to left, and at least half a mile in depth from the edge of the wood. This space was originally a dense forest, but the rebels had ingeniously felled the trees, leaving the huge branches to interlace each other, and forming, with the thick brushwood underneath, a barrier all but impassable.
It was enough to daunt the stoutest hearts; but the order had been given that Port Hudson must be taken that day, and the brave men advanced.
In so horrible a place, where men could scarcely keep their footing, and were sinking at every step up to their arm-pits, and tumbling along as best they could with their muskets and fascines through the impenetrable rubbish—the enemy all the while blazing away at them with grape, shell, and canister—the result may easily be imagined. It was wholesale slaughter.
But it was cheering to see the heroism and endurance of the men. Onward they went—the old flag streaming proudly above them (the fascine-bearers falling in every direction)—until they actually, many of them, fought their way through the half mile of tangled rubbish to the narrow open space between it and the breastworks, where, as a matter of course, the gallant fellows perished. The unequal contest lasted from 3 P. M. to 5 P. M., when General Augur, finding it utterly impossible to carry out the instructions he had received, withdrew his men in perfect order—returning shot for shot as they got back to the wood.
A vigorous bombardment of the position had been made by Admiral Farragut for a week previous to this assault; and reconnoissances had discovered pretty accurately the nature of these formidable defences.