Engagement At Baton Rouge  "Plans To Recapture The Capital"  August 5, 1862

Baton Rouge, the undefended state capital of Louisiana, surrendered on May 12, 1862, without firing a shot when Union Adm. David G. Farragut's fleet of warships arrived two weeks after capturing the city of New Orleans. Farragut continued on up the Mississippi River to Vicksburg, Miss. There the 3,200 soldiers on board the fleet went to work with shovels to try to dig a canal that would allow Union ships to bypass the Confederate fortress city. Toiling in the Louisiana summer heat, the soldiers laid low by malaria and dysentery, and on July 26 Farragut gave up the canal project. He evacuated the men to Baton Rouge, where they were to rest and receive medical treatment.

Gen. Earl Van Dorn, the Confederate commander at Vicksburg, ordered Gen. John C. Breckinridge and 4,000 soldiers to pursue the Yankees and try to recapture Baton Rouge. On July 27 Breckinridge's command boarded trains; the next day they arrived at Ponchatoula, LA, 60 miles east of Baton Rouge, Breckinridge wired Van Dorn requesting that the ironclad CSS Arkansas be sent from Vicksburg to fight the Union warships while his force attacked the city. When Van Dorn replied that the Arkansas would be at Baton Rouge at dawn on August 5, Breckinridge made his plans to attack according to that schedule.

On August 4, 1862, the Confederate force- reduced to 2,600 men because of sickness caused by the heat and poor diet- had marched to within 10 miles of Baton Rouge. One of the Rebels recorded: "The day before the battle, we had nothing to eat but roasting ears and these we ate raw because we had not time to stop long enough to roast them. Our command, with the horses, consumed forty acres of green corn one evening; for we stopped only long enough to gather the corn and feed the horses, we then moved forward to take position to make the attack at daylight."

Fascinating Fact:  The Arkansas, plagued by engine trouble, began the 300 mile trip to Baton Rouge only 30 hours before its scheduled time of arrival and suffered continuous breakdowns along the way.


Back to index page