The infantry march was slow and tedious, as the night was dark. At daylight the 77th Illinois came upon General Lee's cavalry, which had advanced about ten miles from Pleasant Hill, and was still advancing.
The Union infantry advanced through undulating hills that were thick with pine timber. The confederates, which seemed to the Union army to be only a force of cavalry, continued to fall back. They would be driven from one hill, and then take their position on the next hill. The Union casualties to this point in this running fight were relatively small.
About mid-morning, General Lee asked for fresh units to support the fatigued soldiers who had fought the initial skirmishes. Brigadier General Thomas Ransom, commander of the Union army's 13th Corps, ordered Colonel Joseph Vance's 2nd Brigade, comprised of the 130th Illinois, 48th Ohio, 83rd Ohio, and 96th Ohio regiments, into position to the right of Colonel Frank Emerson's 1st Brigade. This was achieved by 1:30 p.m.
Lt. Colonel Reid, the regimental commander of the 130th Illinois Infantry, remembered the day so far:
After a hard day's march, on the 7th day of April, 1864, we camped at Pleasant Hill, La., and on the morning of the 8th, at 4:30, were on our way to Mansfield, La., or Sabine Cross-Roads.
The enemy were falling back slowly. We had marched about twelve miles and went into camp, when an order came for a brigade of infantry to move the "rebs." Our brigade was ordered out. It was about 1 p. m. and we were rushed to the front, two miles from Mansfield, where General Taylor had his command in hand, and about 4 p. m. the whole line was advanced.The 48th Ohio's story for the day was very similar:
We started next morning, April 8th, with the brigade, at 5 1/2 o'clock. The enemy, who had been easily driven the day before by the cavalry, became quite stubborn, and it at times required the aid of the infantry to dislodge them. We marched until half past ten,At about 3 o'clock the Union infantry came to an open field to the left of the road. About a mile ahead they could see the battle flags of their enemy. A battery was brought forward and fired a few shots, but the Confederates did not respond. The brigade then crossed to the East side of the road and moved across a ravine. They came upon a house and near here planted their batteries in preparation of the battle.
when we arrived at St. Patrick's Bayou, which Gen. Franklin selected as our camping-ground. We had scarcely stacked arms, when Gen. Ransom ordered one brigade forward on double-quick. We found great difficulty in passing the cavalry train, which obstructed the entire road through the dense pine forest. At intervals we could hear the heavy firing in our front, indicating that there was work ahead for us. Soon we began to see the wounded and dead, along the road, which showed clearly that the rebels were fighting at
every point.
After having retreated in front of the advancing Union Forces throughout their march through Louisiana, Major General Richard Taylor's Confederate army decided this is where they would make their stand. General Taylor selected Moss Plantation, about three miles southeast of Mansfield, as his army's new defensive stand. His force consisted of two infantry divisions and three Texas cavalry brigades. General Taylor positioned his army just inside the woods on either side of the Old Stage Road, at a strategic communications hub known as Sabine Cross Roads. Opposing Vance's 2nd Brigade (including the 130th Illinois) were three Louisiana regiments commanded by Colonel Henry Gray. Facing Emerson's 1st Brigade were Texas cavalry brigades commanded by a Frenchman named Camille J. Prince de Polignac.
The story of the 48th Ohio is similar to the other regiments in their brigade:
We arrived at the front between one and two o'clock P. M. In our front was a cleared field, and on the opposite side was a belt of timber, where our cavalry was skirmishing with the enemy. Col. Landrum ordered our brigade across to the right of the road, on double-quick, to take position in the edge of the woods. We charged across the open field and over a small stream, then up to the timber. Here the men threw off their knapsacks,The Union line soon formed a 90-degree angle, with one arm stretching south of the Old Stage Road and the
advanced a short distance and halted.
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As the Confederate army moved into the open field, the Union army opened up with a heavy volley of their muskets. One Confederate recorded his recollections of this fire in his diary, noting that
'The balls and grape shot crashing about us whistled terribly and plowed into the ground and beat our soldiers down even as a storm tears down the trees in a forest.Private William Wiley of the 77th Illinois described the early Union response to the rebel attack:
The 48th Ohio was to the immediate right of the 130th Illinois. Their story of the early battle:Just as the rebels were coming up the hill in our front we made a stand in the edge of the timber and poured such a withering fire into their ranks that they gave way and fell back in our front but they swung around and flanked the left of our line doubling it back onto us. [We] were ordered to fall back across the open field and form a new line in rear of our Chicago Mercantile Battery.
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We remained in line of battle until near 4 o'clock, when the cavalry pickets came back on a gallop through our lines, saying the enemy was advancing in strong force. We occupied a narrow strip of timber, and the rebels an open field beyond. Midway between the two armies was a rail fence, running parallel with our line of battle, at the further edge of the timber. We were ordered forward, and had proceeded but a short distance, when wediscovered the long line of rebel infantry, coming on double-quick, to gain the fence. It now became an exciting race, but fortunately we reached the fence while the enemy was still about fifty yards distant. Our men, dropping on their knees, rested their rifles on the fence and delivered a volley with terrible effect. The enemy delivered their fire entirely too high, but stood their ground for half an hour, when the whole line wavered in our front and retreated in disorder, leaving the ground covered with killed and wounded. Cheer after cheer went up from our troops when they saw the rebels flying from the field.
The fence as it appeared in 2012.
In a short time, however, they reformed, and came up in two lines, and renewed the attack, but were repulsed as before. Their field-officers being mounted, were picked off as fast as they came in range. The Division held its position for nearly two hours, against the combined forces of the rebel Generals, Dick Taylor, Walker and Mouton, when suddenly the right of the Regiment was forced back from the fence, caused by an enfilading fire from the enemy.The following is J. H. Snyder's (77th Illinois) account of the battle:
We advanced across another field; then entered a piece of timber. Here the line was formed for battle. But we waited nearly an hour before the engagement began. The Seventy-Seventh halted in a small field to the right of the road that had timber on three sides, and while here tarrying, a cavalryman of the 7th Illinois came riding up to us, knowing many of our boys, and informed us that the rebels were advancing in three columns, and would soon engage us. Just then Gen. Banks ordered the Division forward, the 77th moving to the right oblique.
When the engagement began the Third Division was in the rear some three miles, and the 19th Corps seven miles. Gen. Smith was twenty miles away. The Fourth Division (which included the 77th Illinois and the 130th Illinois) numbered 2,400 effective men on that morning, and this little handful of men, with the cavalry, was brought face to face with the combined armies of Dick Taylor and Kirby Smith.
The line had advanced scarcely three hundred yards when the action began. The rebels threw their line upon our flanks, telescoping our line, and as the timber was denselystudded with underbrush, our boys, in many instances, were entirely surrounded before they knew it. The line being flanked -- the movement striking our extreme right -- the Regiments fought by detail, and by detail were defeated. As the timber was dense with underbrush, and the line of the enemy constantly advancing, surging around farther and farther on our flank, our troops were placed in the dilemma of having the enemy in front and rear.
Thick timber and underbrush in 2012
The column thrown into confusion, hundreds of the boys captured, the enemy pressing us from all quarters, what men were able to get out of the tangle, fell back, forming a line on the batteries which had not, as yet, fired a shot.
When the second line was formed -- the boys acting without organization, for in falling back, each man was left to his chances -- the batteries did good execution. But it was only for a short time, as the enemy were flanking the guns and cutting off all retreat.
A third and last stand was made at the timber to the rear of the open field. But this was merely a feint, for the road being narrow and the timber dense, and impassable for horses and teams, the rush was to occupy the road, and consequently the road was blocked, cutting off all retreat, except in the most confused form. In the confusion of retreat, nearly three hundred wagons and the Chicago Mercantile and Nims' Batteries were captured by the Confederates.
We fell back some distance, perhaps a half-mile from the place of the last stand, before any relief came, when the Third Division met us and formed their line, advancing to the open field, only to be served as we had been. The Third Division was flanked and routed, and fell back to about the same place where they had relieved us, before the advance of the 19th Corps came up. The advance was a Regiment of Zouaves, who had double-quicked until they appeared exhausted and flushed. But forming their line, they checked for the time, the advancing enemy, and the shadows of night brought an end to the further disasters of the day.
Many brave boys were killed and many were captured. The 77th lost one hundred and seventy-one men, the 19th Kentucky two hundred and fifty, and other regiments accordingly. One hundred and forty-three of the 77th boys, with all others captured, were taken to Mansfield and Shreveport and finally to Tyler, Texas, where they lingered in a rebel prison for nearly fourteen months, returning to the Regiment just at the hour of its discharge from the service, the cruel war being over.Lt. Colonel Reid remembered the battle and aftermath this way:
Our division was near a new fence, which the confederates has thrown down to enable them to get to us, but we got there first and held close to the fence, and the "rebs" were in an open field. We used them up. They lost all their field officers and most of their men. We were out of ammunition and I sent Lieutenant Johnson and Sergeant Major Leigh for more, and they returned with the word that the "rebs" were in our rear, and the next move was to get out.
We attempted to form a line of battle, facing south, where the cavalry were farming and near where the 130th had left their knapsacks. Here, while executing this order, I was shot down and paralyzed from head to foot.
My first desire was to get to an oak tree, where our artillery were attempting to keep back the rush of the rebel cavalry and infantry, who were flushed with victory. All our guns, twenty in number, were taken, but my condition was such that I could not move.
When the stampede was over a young man of the confederate army was looking over me. While he stood there a gentleman rode up and demanded my sword, which I was unable to give him. He then told my first visitor to take off my belt and sword and hand them to him, which the first comer did. Then, no doubt, thinking that "all is fair In love and war," and taking a good look at my regulation hat, silk bandanna handkerchief and gauntlets, he remarked that be did not think I would need them any more, and, throwing his old white wool hat down by my side, walked off with the most of my war accoutrements.
Before long a detail of confederates came to carry the wounded to a temporary hospital (out in an open field). I was carried there, and at midnight was taken to Mansfield, a distance of two miles. I was one of three wounded ones placed in an ambulance together. I laid in the middle and on the way to town one of these men died and rolled onto me, almost smothering me to death. 1 had to use my little strength in keeping his body off of me as much as I could.
In Mansfield I was put in a church, with 111 others, and here we wounded fellows stayed until June, when we were paroled at Alexander, La.Historian Victor Hicken summed up the Union defeat:
The Battle of Sabine Cross Roads was probably more vicious than any fought in the entire Red River campaign . . . The Union lost 2,235 in dead, wounded and missing, as well as 20 guns and 250 wagons.The 130th Illinois lost 26 men killed or wounded and 9 officers and 223 men captured for an aggregate loss of 257. Among those wounded was Lt. Colonel John B. Reid. The captured soldiers were imprisoned at Tyler, Texas and not paroled until 13 months later, just before the end of the war. The flag of the regiment, and the color bearer were also captured.
During the night of April 8th, the Union army retreated about 20 miles to the southeast towards Pleasant Hill. Confederate General Richard Taylor wished to take advantage of the demoralized Union army - he planned to pursue the Union army on April 9th and force their continued retreat. This set the stage for the Battle of Pleasant Hill.
Editor's Note: The battlefield is now a state park. The marker for the 130th Illinois reads as follows:
At approximately 4:00pm, Confederate General Alfred Mouton launched his infantrydivision forwarding an attack on the Union line positioned along this snake-rail fence. Today, the ground in front of you is wooded, but in April 1864 it was an open expanse of cleared fields. Initially, the 130th Illinois Infantry Regiment and its sister regiments of Second Brigade, Fourth Division were posted about 200 yards behind, or south of where you now stand in a section of timber. At Mouton’s Louisiana and Texas troops advanced across the open fields toward this position, Union commanders saw the dire importance of moving their brigades forward to the fence line. This would give the 130th Illinois and other Union regiments a clar field of fire. Reaching the fence line, the Illinois men began to deliver well-aimed volleys into Mouton’s men. Occupying the fence line to their right, the men of the 48th Ohio, 19th Kentucky, 96th Ohio and 83rd Ohio Infantry Regiments were adding their musketry to the fight as well. To the left/rear of the 130th Illinois, the 77th Illinois, Infantry Regiment had halted in the woods and was overwhelmed, their attempt to gain the fence linehampered by General Polignac’s Texans. As Polignac’s men swarmed through to the left and Colornel Gray’s Louisiana troops broke through front and right, the 130th Illinois and the other Union regiments along the fence line found themselves surrounded, devastated by the musket fire they were receiving from all sides by Gray and Polignac’s men. Those who were not killed or wounded escaped as best they could, but many were captured en-masse near this area. The 130th Illinois had been destroyed, suffering a casualty rate of 80 percent, more than any Union regiment engaged in the battle and one of the highest of the War. Of the 325 men who went in the fight, only 3 officers and 65 enlisted men answered roll the following day.
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