In cooperation with Major General Ulysses S. Grant's offensive against Vicksburg, Union Major General Nathaniel P. Banks's army moved against the Confederate stronghold at Port Hudson on the Mississippi River.

On May 27, after their frontal assaults were repulsed, the Federals settled into a siege which lasted for 48 days. Banks renewed his assaults on June 14 but the defenders successfully repelled them.

On July 9, 1863, after hearing of the fall of Vicksburg, the Confederate garrison of Port Hudson surrendered, opening the Mississippi River to Union navigation from its source to New Orleans.

At the battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana, May 27, 1863, the African American soldiers bravely advanced over open ground in the face of deadly artillery fire. Although the attack failed, the black solders proved their capability to withstand the heat of battle.

Result(s): Union victory

Location: East Baton Rouge Parish and East Feliciana Parish

Campaign: Siege of Port Hudson (1863)

Date(s): May 21-July 9, 1863

Principal Commanders: Major General Nathaniel P. Banks [US]; Major General Franklin Gardner [CS]

Forces Engaged: XIX Army Corps, Army of the Gulf [US]; Confederate forces, 3rd District, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana, Port Hudson [CS]

Estimated Casualties: 12,208 total (US 5,000; CS 7,208)

• 25 Union and 25 Confederate Soldier Figures, 18 Horses, 10 Cannon
• 2 Covered Wagons, 2 Tents, 2 Canoes, 2 Flags, 16 Fences
• Size: Figures Stand up to 2-1/8 inches tall
• Scale: 1/32nd, Wagons and Horses slightly smaller

Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers: A History Of The 6th Louisiana Volunteers
A predominately Irish brigade from New Orleans. This regiment fought in Virginia during the entire Civil War, since New Orleans was captured so early in the war and the 6th Louisiana virtually became orphans in regards to State support.

The Night the War Was Lost
With the fall of the critical city of New Orleans in spring 1862 the South lost the Civil War, although fighting would continue for three more years. On the Mississippi River, below New Orleans, in the predawn of April 24, 1862, David Farragut with fourteen gunboats ran past two forts to capture the South's principal seaport.

In Camp and Battle With the Washington Artillery of New Orleans
Describes all major actions from the First Battle of Bull Run to the final surrender at Appomatox. A must read for all Civil War buffs. First published in 1885, Reissued in a limited edition that is an exact reproduction of the original, with a few additions

Kindle Available

When the Devil Came Down to Dixie: Ben Butler in New Orleans
Butler headed the federal occupation of New Orleans, where he quickly imposed order on a rebellious city. He also made out like a bandit, diverting an enormous amount of money into his personal coffers. High society scorned him for his infamous "Woman Order,"

The Black Civil War Soldiers of Illinois: The Story of the Twenty-Ninth U.S. Colored Infantry
Study in the lives of black recruits in the Civil War era, and a journey into the hinterlands of an American racial pathos. Throughout this study, Miller explores in detail the biographies of individual soldiers, revealing their often convoluted histories

Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves
The United States of America originated as a slave society, holding millions of Africans and their descendants in bondage, and remained so until a civil war took the lives of a half million soldiers, some once slaves themselves.

Where Death and Glory Meet: Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Infantry
July 18, 1863, the African American soldiers of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry led a courageous but ill-fated charge on Fort Wagner, a key bastion guarding Charleston harbor. Confederate defenders killed, wounded, or made prisoners of half the regiment. Only hours later, the body of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the regiment's white commander, was thrown into a mass grave with those of twenty of his men.

Kindle Available

The Negro's Civil War: How American Blacks Felt and Acted During the War for the Union
In this classic study, Pulitzer Prize-winning author James M. McPherson deftly narrates the experience of blacks--former slaves and soldiers, preachers, visionaries, doctors, intellectuals, and common people--during the Civil War

Kindle Available

Freedom for Themselves: North Carolina's Black Soldiers in the Civil War Era
The processes by which black men enlisted and were trained, the history of each regiment, the lives of the soldiers' families during the war, and the experiences of the colored veterans and their families living in an ex-Confederate state

Honor in Command: Lt. Freeman S. Bowley's Civil War Service in the 30th United States Colored Infantry
A young white officer who served as a lieutenant in a regiment of U.S. Colored Troops in the Union Army, is the work of a superb storyteller who describes how his Civil War experiences transformed him from a callow youth into an honorable man. Describing in detail his relationship with the men in his company, Bowley extols the role of black soldiers and their officers in the Union victory.

Campfires of Freedom: The Camp Life of Black Soldiers During the Civil War
African-Americans - both freemen and ex-slaves - enlisted for a variety of reasons, from patriotism to sheer poverty. Like many of their white counterparts, they attributed theological significance to the war

A Grand Army of Black Men: Letters from African-American Soldiers in the Union Army 1861-1865
Almost 200,000 African-American soldiers fought for the Union in the Civil War. Although most were illiterate ex-slaves, several thousand were well educated, free black men from the northern states

Red River Campaign
Politics and Cotton in the Civil War
Fought on the Red River throughout Central and Northwestern Louisiana, this campaign is a study in how partisan politics, economic need and personal profit determined military policy and operations in Louisiana and Arkansas during the spring of 1864.

Kindle Available

Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers
The clashes between President Abraham Lincoln and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney over slavery, secession, and the president's constitutional war powers went to the heart of Lincoln's presidency. James Simon, author of the acclaimed What Kind of Nation, brings to vivid life the passionate struggle during the worst crisis in the nation's history, the Civil War

Tirailleurs: A History of The 4th Louisiana and The Acadians of Company H
Soldiers from West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. This book follows them through the Civil War and uses diaries, letters, and memoirs to allow the soldiers to tell their own story. From a bloodbath at Shiloh's Hornet's, Nest, to the Battle of Nashville.

Louisianians in the Civil War
The suffering endured by Louisianians during and after the war—hardships more severe than those suffered by the majority of residents in the Confederacy. The wealthiest southern state before the Civil War, Louisiana was the poorest by 1880