Following the Siege of Vicksburg, Union Major General Francis J. Herron's Division of the Army of the Frontier was transferred down the Mississippi River to become part of the 13th Corps. After arriving at Port Hudson on July 25, 1863, the division remained there until August 13, when they were moved to Carrollton above New Orleans. Union Major General Nathaniel P. Banks had been ordered to invade and "plant the Flag in Texas," which led to the Second Battle of Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863. As part of this broader strategic plan, Herron's division was to be transported to Morganza, Louisiana below the mouth of the Red River. The battle at Stirling's Plantation occurred as Confederate Brigadier General Tom Green's cavalry and Brigadier General Alfred Mouton's small infantry division were operating on the upper Atchafalaya River. Herron's movement was designed to distract the Confederates from the invasion of Texas and to prevent Confederate forces from moving to Texas to reinforce defenses there.
The article provides the date of September 29, 1863, and location in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, but does not provide specific details about the sequence of events, key tactical moments, or specific unit deployments during the engagement itself.
The article does not provide information about the immediate outcome or historical consequences of the battle.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
Union: 130; Confederate: 170
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