The Union Army

Civil War History

“Port Hudson will be ours," proclaimed General Nathaniel P. Banks. With  30,000 Northern troops Banks had besieged Port Hudson, a powerful JL   Confederate bastion on the Mississippi River north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Supported by a flotilla of Federal warships, Banks planned a devastating artillery bombardment on the morning of May 27,1863, to be followed by an overwhelming infantry assault by his Army of the Gulf. Federal army and naval forces had captured all of the Mississippi except for a stretch of river between the Confederate strongholds of Vicksburg and Port Hudson. With the fall of these two posts, Northern forces would split the Confederacy and control the mighty Mississippi. But after 12 hours of brutal fighting, the Southerners still held Port Hudson.

Banks renewed the attack on June 13,1863, pounding the Confederate positions with a ferocious naval bombardment. But when the shelling stopped and Banks demanded the bastion's surrender, he was rebuffed by the Confederates. The next day, Banks resumed the artillery bombardment and ordered a huge infantry assault. Among those who charged into the bloody contest were the troops of the 13th Connecticut Infantry. "At 7 a.m. we were ordered to support the First Brigade as they moved on the enemy's works," reported Captain Apollos Comstock, who commanded the regiment. Despite the best efforts of troops like the 13th Connecticut, the Federal assault failed.
On June 15,1863, Banks called for yet another attack. The largest turnout of volunteers came from the 13th Connecticut, but other troops refused. Although they outnumbered the opposing Confederates, Banks' soldiers were worn, dispirited, and not motivated by the promise of medals: their response to the general's orders was a near-mutiny. Banks cancelled the assault.
Resorting to a siege, Banks inched his troops closer through newly-dug entrenchments. On July 4, Vicksburg surrendered to General Ulysses Grant's army, and a few days later, Port Hudson's Confederates surrendered too. General Banks finally had his victory — even without another perilous assault by courageous volunteers like those of the 13th Connecticut.

The 13th Connecticut Infantry Regiment completed its organization in New Haven on January 7,1862. Two months later, the regiment was sent by sea to Ship Island, Mississippi. For the next two years the 13th Connecticut remained part of the U.S. Department of the Gulf. It was involved in operations against Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson near New Orleans. When New Orleans — the largest city in the South — fell to Northern forces, the regiment served in the occupation of the city. The 13th Connecticut joined the Federal expedition to Pass Manchac in September, and was engaged at Georgia Landing near Labadieville, Louisiana on October 27,1862. Afterwards, the regiment was posted to Thibodeaux, then moved to Baton Rouge, where it remained until March of 1863.
In March, the 13th Connecticut moved to Port Hudson, where it was engaged in actions against the Confederate bastion as part of Major General Nathaniel Banks' Army of the Gulf. During the Siege of Port Hudson, the regiment was engaged at Indian Bend on April 13,1863.

At the Battle of Irish Bend on April 14,1863, the troops of the 13th Connecticut were ordered to assault Confederate forces posted behind a rail fence at the edge of a wooded area. "Brisk firing immediately commenced on both sides," reported Colonel Henry W. Birge, the regiment's commanding officer. "The 13th Connecticut, turning the angle in the road, deployed between the road and the bayou, and advanced on the enemy's right.... While these movements were in progress, the enemy was re-enforced by the arrival on transports of troops from below, which, passing through the wood to the left of their line, gained unperceived a position in a deep ditch, concealed by thick bushes, and from which they obtained an enfilading fire on the 25th Connecticut, 26th Maine and 159th New York."
Struck by heavy fire from their concealed opponents, the three Northern regiments fell back, but the 13th Connecticut moved forward. "It steadily advanced," Colonel Birge reported, "the men loading and firing as they march; broke the enemy's line, and driving him back in the utmost confusion, captured two caissons, one limber, a quantity of small-arms.-.and from 50 to 60 prisoners." Also captured by the 13th Connecticut was the battle flag of the Southern troops it dispersed — the Saint Mary's Cannoneers. The regiment was engaged several days later at Bayou Vermillion, served in the assaults on Port Hudson and, after Port Hudson's surrender, joined the Red River Campaign.
In August of 1864, the regiment was shifted from the Department of the Gulf to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, where it joined General Philip Sheridan's devastating Shenandoah Valley Campaign. The regiment was present at the fighting at Opequon Church, the Battle of Fisher's Hill, and the Battle of Cedar Creek. In January of 1865, the 13th Connecticut was dispatched to Savannah, Georgia, captured a few weeks earlier by General William T. Sherman's army, and did garrison duty there until early March. Afterwards followed occupation duty in New Berne, North Carolina and in Georgia at Savannah, Augusta, Athens, Gainesville and Allatoona. The regiment served in the Federal occupation forces in Georgia after the war and was mustered out of service at Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, on April 25,1866.