They had yet to receive their marching orders. Leonida H. Bradley believed:
Will leave in a few days, at farthest, will probably go to Alexandria, (Louisiana).The reality was that the soldiers usually knew very little about where they were going. Only the generals and other high-ranking officers really knew much in advance, and even then, plans often changed on a daily, even hourly, basis. We know now that the plan was to take Shreveport, but the men were not yet aware of that strategy.
But Shreveport was not the final destination. The strategy was to raise the U.S. flag in Texas by moving up the Red River and then west into Texas. Arrangements were finally made by which General Banks was to furnish for the expedition such troops as could be obtained within his department; General Sherman was to furnish 10,000 men from his command, under General A. J. Smith; General Steele, with a column of 10,000, was to join the expedition at some point on the Red River; and, Admiral Porter was to accompany the expedition with a sufficient naval force.
The 17th of March, 1864, was fixed upon as the time when the naval force and the infantry under General
Banks and General A. J. Smith should meet at Alexandria, on the Red river.
