Mansura was a Civil War engagement fought in Louisiana, 1864. It was a Union victory.
As Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks's Red River Expeditionary Force retreated down Red River, Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor attempted to slow the Union troops' movements and, if possible, deplete their numbers or, better yet, destroy them. The Union forces passed Fort DeRussy, reached Marksville, and then continued east. At Mansura, Taylor massed his forces in an open prairie that controlled access to the three roads traversing the area, where he hoped his artillery could cause many casualties. Early on the morning of May 16, the Union forces approached, and skirmishing quickly ensued. After a four-hour fight (principally an artillery duel), a large Union force massed for a flank attack, inducing the Rebels to fall back. The Union troops marched to Simmsport. Taylor's force could harass the enemy's retrograde but was unable to halt it.
Near the town of Mansura, Louisiana, opposing armies clashed on May 16, 1864, as part of the wider Red River Campaign of the American Civil War. Federal troops came out on top against a portion of the Confederate States Army that day.
As Banks's Red River Expeditionary Force pulled back down the Red River, having set out from the Department of the Gulf, Taylor's Confederate troops sought to hinder the Union withdrawal, hoping to whittle away at their strength or, ideally, wipe them out entirely. Union soldiers made their way past Fort DeRussy before arriving at Marksville and pushing onward to the east. Near Mansura, Taylor concentrated his forces on an open stretch of prairie commanding the junction of three roads through the region, banking on his artillery to inflict heavy losses.
Fighting broke out shortly after Union troops advanced that morning, May 16, with skirmishers trading fire almost immediately. The clash dragged on for four hours, dominated mostly by artillery fire back and forth, until a sizable body of Union soldiers gathered to strike the Confederate flank. Facing this threat, Taylor's men withdrew. The Federals then pushed on toward Simmesport. Though Taylor's troops kept pressing and harrying the retreating column, they could not bring its withdrawal to a stop.
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