Stirling's Plantation

On September 29, 1863, Union and Confederate forces clashed in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, in an engagement known by two names: the Battle of Stirling's Plantation (sometimes spelled Sterling's Plantation) and the Battle of Fordoche Bridge. The clash formed part of the larger American Civil War.

Background

After the fall of Vicksburg, the division led by Union Major General Francis J. Herron, part of the Army of the Frontier, moved south along the Mississippi and joined the 13th Corps. The troops reached Port Hudson on July 25 and stayed there until August 13, 1863, at which point they relocated to Carrollton, just north of New Orleans.

Meanwhile, Union commander Nathaniel P. Banks, a major general, had received orders to push into Texas and establish a Union presence there, a goal that led to the Second Battle of Sabine Pass on September 8, 1863. Within this broader strategy, Herron's men were meant to be shipped to Morganza, Louisiana, situated below where the Red River empties into the Mississippi. At the time, Confederate cavalry under Brigadier General Tom Green and a modest infantry division commanded by Brigadier General Alfred Mouton were active along the upper Atchafalaya River. The idea behind sending Herron toward Morganza was to pull Confederate attention away from the Texas operation, and if the effort at Sabine Pass succeeded, to keep those Confederate units from reinforcing Texas.

On September 5, Herron's troops boarded transports and traveled up the Mississippi, coming ashore just below Morganza two days later.

Battle

When Leake examined the ground around Norwoods on the 13th, he concluded the spot offered little real security. Old roads and a partly built railbed cut through the surrounding country, giving Confederate forces easy avenues to slip behind him. He set out pickets and posts and asked Herron for permission to fall back roughly a mile nearer the Stirling plantation, but Herron turned him down.

By the evening of the 15th, word from residents of an impending assault prompted Leake to move his camps two miles north to Stirling's land. Though this ground had some advantages over Norwoods, the surrounding roads still left the Confederates plenty of room to maneuver around the Union position.

A levee bordered the eastern side of the road near the Stirling house, and Leake ordered a break cut into it north of the residence so artillery could pass through when needed. Constant picket duty was kept up, yet the brigade's numbers were so thin that many considered the arrangement insufficient, leaving the entire unit anxious about its exposure.

Confederate movement grew harder to miss, with small parties frequently spotted between the Stirling grounds and Morganza. Herron knew rebels lay between his position and Leake's, yet did nothing to protect that vulnerable rear. Illness eventually forced his hand, and on the evening of the 28th he handed command to Major General Napoleon J.T. Dana before departing for New Orleans.

Mouton, recognizing a chance to crush this undersized Union force, had directed Green on the 19th to draft plans for an assault, with final approval given on the 25th. By the 28th, Green's 3,000 men had gathered at Centerpoint along the Atchafalaya and began ferrying across at three in the afternoon. Wallers and Roundtree's cavalry battalions, along with Semme's battery, completed the crossing by nightfall. Speight's and Mouton's infantry brigades followed, and the 4th, 5th, and 7th Texas Cavalry crossed last, finishing by one in the morning on the 29th, all in heavy rain.

The following morning, Mouton sent his own brigade along with Speight's through wooded swampland on a trail that met the Opelousas road roughly two miles above the Stirling plantation. Mouton intended to hold that spot to prevent reinforcements from Morganza, while Speight struck the main blow against Leake's right and rear.

The rest of the Confederate horsemen took the road toward Fordoche Bridge near the Norwood house, reaching it near eleven that morning and trading fire with Union cavalry pickets stationed there. Roughly thirty minutes later, gunfire echoed from the north, near the Stirling farm.

Shortly before midday, a single shot rang from the picket post above the camp at Stirling's, followed swiftly by a burst of firing from the cane fields northeast of the house, signaling that Mouton had launched his assault. Leake pushed his artillery up the road toward the levee gap to sweep the cane fields with fire. He directed the 19th Iowa to a fence line running east and west behind the house to open fire, while the 26th Indiana took position to its left, facing west, firing obliquely rightward.

Inexplicably, the guns never reached the levee gap, instead being hauled by hand among the outbuildings behind the house, rendering them useless there.

With only 450 infantrymen on hand, since so many were away on picket duty, Leake watched both regiments get driven back through the Stirling buildings until they reformed along the levee, now facing east, using the earthwork as a strong defensive line.

Facing a Confederate force far greater in number, the Union troops saw the enemy first try to flank the 19th's right. In response, the 26th shifted to the 19th's right flank, now facing south. Noticing this adjustment, the Confederates redirected their push rightward, pouring through the levee gap in an attempt to turn the 19th's left. Heat and exhaustion wore down the men further, and when Leake took a bullet in the foot, was thrown from his horse, and captured, the resulting chaos left no other officer to take charge.

Meanwhile, near the Norwood farm, Confederate cavalry had utterly scattered the Union horsemen to the south, who fled toward Morganza so quickly that not one was taken prisoner. Their retreat carried them east of the Stirling plantation, bypassing the battle unfolding there entirely. The infantry at Stirling's remained too absorbed in their own struggle to notice what had befallen their cavalry. Many of Green's riders wore captured Union uniforms taken three months ear

Aftermath

Escape proved possible for only a handful of Union foot soldiers. In the end, Federal casualties amounted to 16 killed, 45 injured, and 454 taken captive, while the Confederates counted 26 killed, 85 injured, and ten unaccounted for. Beyond the human toll, Green's men seized a pair of 10-pounder Parrott rifled guns along with their caissons, two brand-new ambulances, a hospital wagon stocked with medical supplies, and every weapon carried by the men who surrendered. Moving swiftly, Green gathered up his captives and the captured equipment and headed back toward the river, crossing over without delay. From there, the prisoners were forced on a march through Alexandria, Natchitoches, Mansfield, and Shreveport, eventually reaching Camp Ford, a prison camp situated near Tyler, Texas, on October 23, 1863.