Historical Markers and War Memorials in Port Hudson, Louisiana
Baton Rouge is the parish seat for East Baton Rouge Parish
Port Hudson is in East Baton Rouge Parish
East Baton Rouge Parish(454) ► ADJACENT TO EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH Ascension Parish(70) ► East Feliciana Parish(60) ► Iberville Parish(32) ► Livingston Parish(27) ► St. Helena Parish(7) ► West Baton Rouge Parish(41) ►
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In May 1863 Union forces
commanded by General
Nathaniel P. Banks laid siege
to the Confederate stronghold
at Port Hudson, just west of
here. The Confederates under
General Franklin Gardner
inflicted heavy casualties
on Banks' army . . . — — Map (db m133735) HM
"Owing to the ruggedness of the ground and felled timbers, the enemy could not preserve their lines intact and soon became a conglomerate mass. We waited their approach in silence. When within forty yards we were commanded to fire. A blaze of . . . — — Map (db m128569) HM
"The attack was a huge bushwhack. The rebels availed themselves of the thickets, trees, fallen timber ridges, ravines and also of rifle pits and networks of earth and log construction at convenient points and being concealed and protected gave . . . — — Map (db m129209) HM
"Two pieces of siege artillery were removed during Tuesday (May 26
1863) night from the heavy batteries on the river and mounted on
this line---one rifled 24 pounder, under command of Lieutenant
Sanford, Company A, First regiment Alabama . . . — — Map (db m128532) HM
"...no less than four mortars were planted for the purpose of shelling our rifle pits, and the battery at Bennetts stables immediately opposite, but these after firing steadily for several days & nights, without doing us the slightest damage, . . . — — Map (db m128273) HM
"During the fierce assault on May 27 on our whole left wing, Commissary Hill was an essential object of attack. Here we had a four gun battery, and behind it were our commissary stores, arsenal and old ginhouse containing the little grist mills . . . — — Map (db m128494) HM
"Colonel Johnson had galleries dug under his breastworks through which his men could crawl into the outer ditch and sharp shoot from that..." Lieutenant Howard C. Wright Company C 30th Louisiana Infantry Regiment In order to have safe . . . — — Map (db m100640) HM
"I had a small flanking pit constructed on the outside or rather under my works, and on the left thereof, and from which I continued a deadly fire until he [the enemy] left the ditch. This pit was subterranean and could not be seen from the . . . — — Map (db m100641) HM
Field artillery cannon, like 6-pounder guns and 20-pounder Parrotts, were towed from location to location by two wheeled carriages called limbers. Teams of six or four horses, grouped in pairs, were harnessed to the limbers, and the left side . . . — — Map (db m128509) HM
"At this junction what was supposed to be a flag of truce was raised, and the rebels, thinking it was a signal for a cessation of hostilities, ceased firing along the line, during which the regiment sought and secured a safer position not quite . . . — — Map (db m100643) HM
"A desperate charge carried a small force of men through this road to a
very advance position which they successfully held, in one of these gullies.
Luckily we got into a fine place and were able to hold our own, though I
was in mortal fear . . . — — Map (db m128868) HM
"…so terrible had been the fighting....that the position was called Fort Desperate."
Colonel Benjamin W. Johnson
15th Arkansas Infantry Regiment
Commander of Fort Desperate
Not a fort but a defensive . . . — — Map (db m97268) HM
"Seeing Colonel Steadman's right wing...heavily pressed and in danger of being flanked, I ordered Lieutenant Edrington to open upon him [advancing Union forces] with shrapnel and shell. He fired with great rapidity, coolness and precision" . . . — — Map (db m100637) HM
"Nearly all the pieces stationed upon the Commissary Hill, to guard the
approaches to the mill between the left wing and the center, were either
dismounted or other wise disabled. Against this point, the enemy had
established two batteries of . . . — — Map (db m128495) HM
"Another (solid shot) struck a tree about thirty feet from the ground, cutting it completely off at a point eight inches in diameter the top as it fell killing one horse and crushing a caisson of the First Maine Battery, a little in front of the . . . — — Map (db m128531) HM
"Lieut. Rhodes...deployed his men at intervals so as to occupy the whole ridge commenced firing on the enemy [black Union troops] both front and rear doing terrible execution and throwing them into confusion and disorder, they still continued to . . . — — Map (db m128272) HM
"At the same time the approaches to Fort Desperate were checked by deadly fire of the Arkansas marksmen there, who, perched up in their sharpshooter tower, could fire down into every part of the enemy's ditch, which had now been brought within . . . — — Map (db m100638) HM
"About the middle of the siege, the enemy attempted to make a sneak through our lines in the night. A picked command was formed, possibly a thousand men. They selected the slaughter pen route. This pen stood on a high bluff, deep ravines from . . . — — Map (db m128492) HM
"Colonel Steedman having been put in command of the left wing, composed of the First Alabama, 15th Arkansas and 10th Arkansas, a detachment of Wingfield's battalion and 39th Mississippi regiment. Colonel Steedman, during the siege, won the . . . — — Map (db m128533) HM
"...as an additional security against assault, now that the enemy had approached so near, I had a number of 8, 10, and 13-inch shells planted in the scrap wall of ditches as "torpedoes" and connected them by means of wires, with the interior of . . . — — Map (db m97320) HM
Robert Parker Parrott, a former U.S. army officer,
invented a series of rifled, reinforced-breech, iron cannon.
The cannon were manufactured at the West Point Foundry
in Cold Springs, New York, and were made in different
calibers: 10-pounder . . . — — Map (db m128869) HM
Marker 1
32-pounder guns were the smallest standard "sea-coast" cannon and among the smallest "ship-borne" cannon in 1861. These cannon were made of iron, were designed with smoothbore barrels, and were intended to throw solid shot at long . . . — — Map (db m96867) HM
Both the U.S. Army and Navy started using 42-pounder cannons early in the 19th century. They were among the largest cannons in use at that time. Due to their great size and weight, these cannons were used only at established forts and on the . . . — — Map (db m86234) HM
Marker 1
In 1822, Lieutenant Colonel Paixhan, of the French artillery, submitted a plan for using long-chambered cannon at slight elevations to throw large heavy shells at a long range in the same way as solid shot.
Other countries, . . . — — Map (db m96897) HM
"…a cleared space was found, overlooking deep ravines in which trees had been chopped down and left as they fell, and on the opposite side of which the newly thrown up works of the enemy (Fort Desperate) were plainly visible. The two . . . — — Map (db m97263) HM
"...they (the Federals) threw up rifle pits all around my works, distant about two hundred and fifty yards, and all of these, aided by artillery, he kept up a terrible and steady fire upon every part of my position..."
-- Colonel . . . — — Map (db m97259) HM
"About the 10th of June, the enemy planted four mortars in position
near the battery opposite Bennett''s House. These mortars gave us
great annoyance; they were fired day and night, to the very great
disturbance of our troops; yet few were . . . — — Map (db m129393) HM
".. I am still with Rochester battery and think so far I like artillery
service better than the infantry... Captain Harrower shows himself
to be a brave and prudent commander."
--Private George Coleman
Company B
161st New York . . . — — Map (db m129243) HM
"..to our right and left upon tree trunks, were nailed white
crosses which had evidently served for practice, to get the
exact range of the rebel guns, and they had it. For instance, a
section of the First Maine Battery came plunging . . . — — Map (db m129221) HM
"With admirable celebrity the pioneers (trail blazers) opened up the roads and Capt. Duryea brought up the division artillery and within fifteen minutes after driving him (Confederate skirmishers) in, our batteries were answering his guns from . . . — — Map (db m100645) HM
"...on the front of another division commander, I find another serpentine approach, which has been dug very wide, and yet could not admit more than four or five men abreast. It ends near the rebel parapet..."
Lieutenant Colonel Edward . . . — — Map (db m98772) HM
"...he [attacking Union troops] moved...up to my ditch again, and by digging a small place, or bank that intervened between the head of the ravine and the said ditch [the exterior ditch surrounding Fort Desperate]. which was not more than one . . . — — Map (db m100642) HM
