Battle of Pleasant Hill Historic Site

The road to Pleasant Hill told the story before the battle did. On April 9, 1864, sixteen miles southeast of the previous day's defeat at Mansfield, that road was littered with burning wagons, abandoned knapsacks, arms, and cooking utensils. Federal stragglers and wounded were rounded up by the hundreds. Union forces had retreated through the night to a small village of twelve to fifteen houses sitting on a clearing slightly elevated above the surrounding pine forests — an open field once cultivated, now overgrown with weeds and bushes. Both sides had been reinforced through the night. Churchill's Arkansas Division and Parson's Missouri Division had arrived at Mansfield too late for that fight but would play a major role here. Major General Andrew J. Smith arrived from Grand Ecore around nightfall on April 8 with detachments of the 16th and 17th Corps. On the morning of April 9, the Union baggage train left Pleasant Hill at 11 a.m., taking many pieces of artillery with it. The Confederates brought eighteen pieces of their own — captured Union guns from Mansfield, now turned against their former owners. The enemy began reconnaissance at 11 a.m. By 1 or 2 p.m., skirmishers opened sharp fire. At 5 p.m., Confederate forces launched their attack, charging the entire Union line. The initial charge overran many positions down the Union left and center. The Union halted the advance, regained the ground, and drove the Confederates from the field. The fiercely fought battle lasted about two hours. Losses were heavy on both sides. Brigadier General Hamilton P. Bee rode down the Pleasant Hill road with two regiments in columns of four when Federals concealed behind a fence attacked at close range. Men toppled from their saddles, wounded horses screamed, Bee had two horses shot from under him. Colonel Xavier B. Debray fell from the saddle of his dead horse and withdrew his men safely to the rear, leaving about a third of them killed or wounded on the front. Banks began his retreat at 1 a.m. on April 10, hours after the battle ended. By daylight, Brigadier General Hamilton P. Bee was in possession of the battlefield. The day was spent burying the dead of both armies and caring for Federal wounded. Union soldiers captured during the battle were taken to Camp Ford, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp near Tyler, Texas. Most were kept for the next year or so, not released until a general exchange near the end of the war. After Pleasant Hill, Banks retreated to Grand Ecore and abandoned plans to capture Shreveport. The majority of historians consider the battle a Union tactical victory. Banks held the field, then left it anyway.