To the Defeated Go the Spoils

The Red River Campaign ended in defeat for the Union.
After their retreat from the battles at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill,
the Cane River country took the brunt of the damage inflicted by the retreating force.

Plantations and homes were reduced to ashes and
even the free blacks of the area and the descendants
of our French settlers, who flew the French flag and claimed neutrality,
lost everything that had been built by generations of their families.

As to General Banks priorities, or lack of them,
during the campaign, the following is an excerpt from a letter written shortly
after the expedition by Sergeant Philip Schaller, Company E, 27th Iowa Vol. Infantry.
It is published for the first time with the kind permission of his descendant, Ms. Genie Mintken.

May 29, 1864 ".Our last expedition was a rather discouraging one,
and in the eyes of the soldiers of the expedition the sole blame
rests upon Major Gen Banks.
I use to have a great deal of confidence in Banks,
but after I was but a few days under him,
I, as well as nearly every one else,
could plainly see that he was not the right man in the right place.

Gen. Smith moved 10,000 troops is six days over 300 miles
by water & 40 miles by land, took in all about 1000 prisoners,
considerable artillery small arms, ammunition, &.c.
while Banks moved a force of from 30 to 35,000 men only about 150 miles
in one months thus, giving the rebels all possible
chance to reinforce, fortify &.c.

Why does Banks move so slow?
This is a question easy answered. In the vicinity of Alexandria,
Grand Ecore & several other places there were many cotton plantations,
and of course at such profitable places the troops were
allowed to remain in camp, for a week or
so at such places, until Gen. Banks' father-in-law,
the great cotton speculator of the expedition,
had gathered up all the cotton and had it secure,
and then we'd move on the another rich cotton hole
and camp again a day or so according the amount of cotton
without ever looking for the benefit of
the cause in which we were engaged."