sherman's, and general sherman thought that he was going to lead this. so when the navy commits it's going to be ported to sherman, then when sherman is forced to back out, porter is god. he has to come. now, this river that shreveport is on, the red river, is long, thin, muddy, silty, and in 1864 it was relatively shallow. about nine feet would be a good constant ideal depth. and so admiral porter is going to bring up vessels that have drafts of five to 90, meaning that his heavy ironclads will scrape the bottom of the river as they. that is not a good way to

operate. and is going to bring 104 vessels up the river. these 104 vessels, marvelous in their complexity, in their ability to project firepower. but it is very much a case of river to shallow, too far. and how do you get them out without getting into trouble? they will get into trouble. so beginning march 10 of 1864, with plans written out thoroughly, but 400 miles distance from the different points of the legs, the campaign begins. general sherman has loaned 10,000 men, veterans all, from the mississippi valley campaigns to really protect the navy from being abandoned.

and they leave vicksburg, come down the mouth of the river, have trouble coming into the red river. once they cross, they then ascend rapidly. they come upon a forward that was built two years before by the confederates. it was designed to hold upwards of the division, maybe 5000 mink. there are only 200 men, between 20300 men at this fort and they will take this pretty easily. sherman segments are going to sneak behind afford while the the navy is going to try to pound it from the beginning, and although the papers in new york and washington, philadelphia really describe this as an armageddon like battle, it's more of a skirmish. they then make a leap forward, and they send one of their

ironclad monitors to osage on a river to alexandria. right in the middle of the thing. alexandria falls without a shot do this very formidable ironclad. the captain of it, lieutenant commander, since a chore your back by boat to admiral porter saying please come up here. they don't know that they can take this stuff. as they get into alexandria, porter is waiting around for banks was supposed to be there. banks is nowhere to be seen. there's no communication. there's no open telegraph line. it's all by boat. and we start seeing the whole campaign begin to fall apart at that point. porter is also shocked at the

river. i do not understand why, when all of the strings in this region are booming, and he capitalized each litter, he underlines it three times, the red is falling, sometimes an inch an hour, sometimes an inch a day. he never will today he understands what the confederates are doing. steel no banks. where is banks? banks has decided not to come up with his men marching across south louisiana. he is dealing, as he inaugurates the new union governor, michael honda, who had been a union senator from louisiana. and he is just fastidious with all of this. these wonderful goings on trying to show that louisiana is going to be a fine union state. at the same time, 20,000 of his

men are slogging across south louisiana. they go by rail from algiers across from new orleans, to what is today oregon city, by rail. and then they have to march through those south louisiana swamps, buckshot, black dirt gumbo. my grandmother used to call it grow taller but because it sticks to your shoes and you grow taller. they march all the way across to the little bitty town of washington. today it is st. landry parish. and then from there, they head north east to alexandria. it takes them a week to do it. it's miserable. it's raining. the roads are bottomless.

and then in the muddy pig and banks has given to voters that they will not go into a city if they look bad. so they have to stop and clean themselves up. banks is not a military man. they march in the alexandria seven days after admiral porter. and they look good. and shermans men who who are all westerners, it looked like they were westerners in the uniforms are mended. they just don't look good, but they are really prestigious fighters. they think these eastern guys have had an easy time of it. and there's a lot of animosity between the easterners and westerners. banks floats in on a boat called blackhawk, and that was not a good move because that was the name of admiral porter's flagship. and admiral porter thinks he did it because it's an insult.

banks had no clue. also, waiting for banks is a letter from general grant. now, taking over as commander of union forces. pieces of banks, you will go to shreveport or you will not go to shreveport. if you take it, fine. if not you're going to stop. you come back. you leave just enough men to garrison what you have and you and the bulk of your force will go east and you will take mobile because you have to protect general sherman on his campaign to take atlanta. to protect the flank. there's a better army operating around mobile, and the union does not want to have to deal with that coming in behind or sherman's flank for his side. and so it's an important mission. well, banks ignores it. he sends a letter to the president, and to general grant,

separately saying things are going great but i'm going to take shreveport and i'm going to be in texas. he has specifically been told not to go to texas. and he is going to go ballistic. and general halleck is going to go ballistic. resident lincoln has fashioned president lincoln has in his notes, has the most interesting and telling comment perhaps. he says every time i've had a general who is told me that things are going so well, there has been a disaster. and i fear that we will have one now. one of the confederates come we haven't talked about the confederates, can't have a war unless there's at least two sides, the confederates are based out of shreveport. and west of the mississippi river and being run or operate out of shreveport is an army of

western louisiana, and if you put every confederates under arms that would be available you could have a 25,000 men. there will never be more than 12,000 on the field at one time. the commander of the department is three-star general lieutenant general kirby smith. he's a native of florida. he has had sort of a checkered career, but well thought of. he operate with braxton bragg in kentucky in that invasion to he was sent down to louisiana to stabilize things and make sure that banks wasn't going to succeed. he arrived in march of 1863 and is almost exactly one year to prepare. he builds force. eisai mud mover. he loves to build force and heat build similarly find up and down

the river valley. under him he has three department commanders. the local commander in what is termed the district of western louisiana, louisiana west of the mississippi river is major general, two stars, richard kent, the son of president zachary taylor. brother-in-law for his first marriage to president jefferson davis. a graduate of yale. tremendously intelligent. one of the finest tactical commanders that the confederates have. kirby smith, richard tighter to not get along. every time kirby smith does something that did it believes is dumb, tattles on them. taylor spent his time getting ready. he has built pose with the help of a black man named carol jones

in western louisiana. and he can supply his forces so they can get to it. banks and porter, up the river, taylor has ordered his forces, all the way from the mississippi river across north louisiana, and also in texas, all the way from the texas wine just west of shreveport. everybody gets together to come and to gather. so it takes a while for the forces to come. they are be supplied, they are ready. nobody believes that the yankees can move that quickly, and they did. and so every time the texans try to come across a predetermined point the yankees already added them. it's just like a big race, one site coming of the red river, which is the union. the texans coming up what is today the equivalent of highway

59, u.s. highway 59 in texas. and they will cross over into louisiana. louisiana troops have come from central louisiana, northeast louisiana, back to northwest. and the texas infantry under walker have been in the south part of the red river valley, and they come up. although no one realizes at the time, everybody is shadowing the union and the union has no clue. in fact, the confederates really probably don't have a clue. taylor knows that if he can fight the closest come as close as possible to shreveport and to still protect it, he will do his job. he can get people to come in. he doesn't have to worry about the supply line. so he picks the place. banks stupidly comes up one long road, and he's going to find

that when he gets away from the river and the big guns of the navy, which he will do, that there's only one road that he can use. and he will accordion this long column. 30 miles, and that's not the way to run a military campaign. hater knows that in a little town of mansfield about 40 miles south of shreveport, that single road then breaks into three rows. banks will have three avenues of approach. he's going to stop it at mansfield. it's going to be an armageddon like do or die battle for the confederate command, and although the union does not understand it, for them as well. taylor marshals his forces and begins to work on his plan. kirby smith and shreveport doesn't even come down to see what taylor is doing.

banks finally decides to move forward out of his contentment in alexandria. -- encampment. along the river and in the river, up to naca dish. a little place called big plus. 120-foot high shear cliffs and that's where they decide what they're going to do. porter is amazed the river is falling. and has to leave a lot of his heavy vessels in alexandria. and also is going to have to leave a bunch of them. what's happening is the confederates anticipating today's would come up, they built a dam inside channels. this side channel was prepared

for a trap. a very eloquent try. shreveport will have water. once they blow this damn, the red river will be diverted through the side channel and the red river will fall. what porter is saying when he sent that letter to sherman is that the dan is working, or the blog and is working. and water is putting up to the west. and his vessels are about to be high and dry and he will not be able to extract them. portable go far north just above the southern line of duty east of where we are. he will come within about two miles maybe, at the confederates have placed a large

steamboat across the river, and it blocks it. they left a placard in the mud that says, that admiral porter is now invited to a ball and is on her at shreveport. porter thinks it's always. he can't move this vessel, and there he sits for a little bit waiting to figure out what to do. back to banks. banks marches inland away from this welcoming set of large naval, he moved the west for about 12 miles. and then he cuts, this map shows he can do this. his maps are somewhat wrong. and then he cuts to the

northwest of what is the day highway 120. then he moves north, which is louisiana highway 175. he starts seeing confederates. cavalry, texans under tom green who arrived. and they just sort of slow him down. they're not going to bring on a battle. but they do delay them. on the morning of april 8, 1864, the union column sets out and moves the last miles until they come to another small stream called chapman's body. this one is even smaller. they have run through a set of woods, another set of woods, a couple of over passions, and then a lot of toshi acreage called honeycutt rich. and did the confederate calvary

prepared to fight them, they think. union cavalry up front of the main column, sets up a line of battle and the confederates lead. they ride over this hill. so the on scene commander, brigadier general lee, and his staff and some of the other staff of infantry go up to the top of this, and lee reports, i see before me every confederate seemingly west of the mississippi river. they have been to my left as far as i can see. they have been back to the road ahead of me to my right. indeed, there's probably 12,000 of there. the most packaging can put on the field is 7200. because they can't get past the

wagon that banks have put in front, again, banks is not a military man. the confederates under taylor and the union under tactical commander, a brigadier general, and another brigadier general, general lee, albert lea, face each other for four hours. and then at 4 p.m., no daylight savings time, the confederates know that the union will just bring up more men. they finally attack. the attack is designed to follow their initial placement, which is an al. and the idea is to have a hinge and the confederates will close the hinge, the middle of it being the road and the yankees in the middle of it, union forces, and instead of doing

this, they are going to do that. it's going to slow them down in the union will be able to get out. it is a meat grinder. the battle will last about three hours. the confederates will is about 1000 men. the union forces, missing, killed, wounded in excess of 2000. fighting in with the confederates pushing the union forces back three miles, the woods are on fire, nobody can see what's going on, taylor captures 262 of banks wagons. banks withdraws 70 miles back. taylor thinks that banks is right in front of him. he plans a battle for the geography, not 17 miles away.

but that's where it's going to be fun. the battle of pleasant hill will be fought the next day. 24 hours later, beginning at 4 p.m. it will last for four hours. this will be a strategic time. this is hard, hard, hard fighting. sherman seasoned veterans, many of them write letters, and they say they have never seen fighting like this. and, indeed, it was horrific. taylor has his much coveted louisiana troops and has texas cavalry. and they will pursue banks. banks retreats back, and there he will fortify himself for a few days. admiral porter will suffer greatly from confederate artillery. and many of his vessels will be riddled. general tom green from texas

will try to catch the navy at a place called blairs lane, and they will fight an unusual battle, 2500 mounted texas cavalry against an ironclad monitor, the osage, and some support vessels. very few casualties. they disabled -- this was april 12, 1864. the first time a periscope was ever used in battle for the osage. it is just been invented a couple days before. and one of the few casualties was general tom green and the osage fires around from the 11-inch gun, a huge naval gun, and they fire high but one of the canister rounds takes off a part of his head, just the sight of it and he falls dead. his body is taken back to austin for a state funeral.

it was a huge loss for the confederate cavalry, and for taylor, because tom green was a very fierce fighter. there was a lot of morning on both sides. taylor does not have enough men to capture banks' forces. banks does not have the will to go forward. goes back to alexandria. the navy links back in after losing for vessels to confederate artillery. and the water is so low that it's just barely puddles. porter reports there's a stretch of water in them that is 25 feet wide and one foot deep. you can't get warships out. the navy will be saved by a wisconsin girl, joseph bailey. who knows how to do logging. he builds dams.

raises the level of water and the navy boats will shoot out. banks is responded. -- despond it. he also finds out he has been fired. he will be a pencil pusher for the rest of the were. as the navy is able to leave alexandria through a torrent of water, porter gets out and just will not come he's so happy to get out he can't see straight. alexandria was burned to the ground and had to be rebuilt. when banks' man's leave, it is burned to the graphic the only major city in louisiana that gets the same kind of destruction that georgia gets. shreveport, second largest city in louisiana, will be a banking center, a trading center, an agricultural center.

it will get that position and hold it until 1970. it will call itself the queen city of the southwest. and it will in effect have that position simply because that army was able -- >> for more information on shreveport we can on book tv, is at c-span.org content. >> here's a look at some books that are being published this week.

i think we'll hear a lot more in the coming days and i think this is all good. this is a very good thing to happen. >> how do you assess the race? >> santorum is experiencing a surge. the question is is he going to be able to take the. romney will turn it up and he has the organization to do it. you can fly by the seat of your pet for a while but you can't fly by the seat of your pants the entire primary season. >> thank you. good luck. >> thank you. how are you? >> how are you a? >> great. take care of yourself. hi, how are you? >> hello.

>> my head was down. having fun? >> yes. >> nice to meet you. >> thank you so much. >> take care. >> how are you? >> thank you, take care. thank you. have a good one. how are you? how's it going? >> good. how are you? >> you will enjoy it, i promise. enjoy, listen to my speech, laugh. how are you doing? >> you got here tonight sorry. great to see you. >> how are you? >> glad you made it. >> i know. i'm sorry. good to see you.

>> thank you so much for coming. >> thank you. sorry i'm so late. >> take care. hi, how are you, how is it going? >> good. >> here we go. nice to see you. how are you? >> good. how are you. i just want to say thank you for your radio show. >> e-mail our website. put in turn on the subject line. >> how are you? >> i wanted to meet you. >> thank you. watch me tonight. i'm hosting all right. hi, michael. how are you? thank you. it was a little hairy out there. how are you going? >> i'm doing fine. >> good to see. hello, how are you? >> i see you l