New York 21st Light Independent Artillery (Union)

Brigadier GeneralThomas W. Sherman

Port Hudson

In cooperation with Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's final offensive against Vicksburg, Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks's army moved against the Confederate stronghold at Port Hudson on the Mississippi River. Like Vicksburg, Port Hudson was located atop high bluffs at the river bank that commanded the river. On May 11th, Banks learned that some Confederates had been moved from Port Hudson to support the forces defending Vicksburg, so he sought to move upon the garrison before those troops could be replaced. Banks…READ MORE

Fort Blakeley

Although the harbor of Mobile Bay had been closed to blockade running traffic since mid-summer 1864 with Admiral David G. Farragut's victory there, the port city of Mobile still remained in Confederate control. In late March 1865, two Federal infantry columns converged on the defenses of the city at Fort Blakeley and Spanish Fort. One force of 13,000 Union soldiers commanded by Gen. Frederick Steele moved west from Pensacola with orders to take Blakely from the rear. Union Gen. Edward R.S. Canby's Sixteent…READ MORE