Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-05-11
Wasted Valor at rN ww roRTIETH
 ND ~~4 ANNIVERSARY nTE "IhnSWRH WAR STORY ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~~ ~ May

tricate the troops in any order without greatly adding to the list of casualties, already of fearful length. Banks was for putting in the supports, but before anything could be done came bad news from the left, and at last it was clear to the most persistent that the day was miserably lost" Chapin and O'Brien were shot dead while struggling to cut their way through the abatis. Nearly every ofa- cer in the storming party was killed or wounded, and the Twenty-first Maine color guard was totally destroyed The right wing of Banks army un- der General Weitzel happily escaped the dull and hopeless slaughter suf- fered by the left and center. The Con federate defenses on the land side at Port Hudson were nearly four miles long and touched the river at each end. In front of Weitzel the defenses had been hastily prepared to meet the at tack by felling huge logs along the crest of the hill The ravines approach ing the hill were barricaded with a
 network of limbs. E4 .f WeitzePs men could not even see the enemy they were to attack. They be- came bold mark for destructive fire
 of small arms, grape, shell and canis- ter the moment the line left the cover of the hollows and the timbers Final
 ly, after climbing over hills, logs and
 fallen trees and forcing the ravines filled with brush, the troops drove back
 the Confederates and seized the ridge
 about POO yards from the main point
 selected for attack.
 AS the infantry advanced the pio-
 neers opened the roads, and five bat
 teries were hauled to the crest. Some of the regiments took an hour to move
 half mile. So thick was the brush
 that men could see only few feet,
 and at one point Confederate officer
 and his skirmishing party were sur prised and captured in a ravine before
 they were aware that the Federals
 were coming.
 WeitZel's attack began early in the
 morning, and after it had spent its
 main strength an attempt was made
 on the extreme right to force the Con-
 federate lines near the river. Two col ored regiments of Louisiana negroes lined up in front of a rugged bluff
 
 height, forming natural bastion with
 perpendicular sides and inaccessible except by a narrow road winding along it's base. The ridge was held by Colo
 nel Shelby's Mississippi regiment, aid
 ed by six field guns and two colum-
 biads firing 8 inch and 10 inch shrap nel.
 When the head of column of negroes
 reached the foot of the hill, Shelby's
 men opened upon them with musketry from the rifle pits on the crest. The
 negroes pressed gallantly on and soon got within range of the field guns which raked the line with shell and shrapnel. Still struggling on, they came under the enfilade fire of the columbiads. Pushing into the narrow gorge leading up the hill, the foremost negroes were within POO yards of the
 top when all the guns bearing upon their course began belching canister.
 Courage against canister is like a broom against the ocean. Blood and
 bones cannot stand 1t. The leading regiment fell back in disorder and
 struck the one following at the base of | the hill. Both regiments rallied under
 cover and reformed for a second charge. Finally they moved forward l toward the hill, but were not ordered | in again.
 Confederate bullets, shrapneE, canis- l ter and scrap iron did not fly wild at 1 Port Hudson, notwithstanding the ir- | regularity and confusion of the lines. | Over 100 Federal officers, including two l generals and nine colonels were shot down and nearly 2,O00 soldiers in the | ranks killed and wounded. The Con- l federate loss was comparatively light,
 although Banks guns bombarded the works at intervals, beginning at day
 light, and the Federal fleet maintained | fire from the river upon the strongest parts of the fortress. General Neal Dow was captured in
 his quarters by skillful raiding party l and carried to Richmond after an ex-
 citing trip across the country. He was l long held as hostage for Fitz-Hugh Lee. Banks went into the movement
 against Port Hudson in the belief that
 Grant would send help from Vicks- l burg. This help was ordered from l Washington, but the dispatch didn't
 reach Grant until his troops were in battle near Vicksburg the 17th of May. It required him to abandon the Vicks- burg campaign, but he had already
 half won the game and declined to | give up. Banks entered upon a siege
 which endeN in the surrender of Port
 Hudson soon after the fall of Vicks- l burg. GEORGE L. KILMER.