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Accordingly, early on the 9th of April, Banks gave orders for the wagon train to be set in motion toward Grand Ecore, escorted by Lee with the cavalry and Dickey's colored brigade, and put his army into position at Pleasant Hill to cover the movement.
At Monett's Ferry on the 29th, Cloutierville on the 30th, and again at Natchitoches he encountered slight opposition from the enemy's skirmishers. Franklin, marching by the same road, encamped at Natchitoches on the 2d of April. Embarking on his transports as they came, A. J. Smith set out from Cotile Landing on the 2d of April in company with Porter's fleet, and landed at Grand Ecore on the 3d.
Indeed the total casualties in Kilby Smith's division above Grand Ecore were but 19, and Porter mentions only one. Chief among the Confederate killed was the brave, impetuous, and indomitable Green. About noon on the 13th, several of the boats being aground in mid-stream, they were attacked by Liddell, strongly posted on the high bluff known as Bouledeau Point.
Emory followed with the brigades of Beal and McMillan and the artillery reserve under Closson. Then came Cameron, and last A. J. Smith, in the order of Kilby Smith and Mower. Crossing Cane River about two miles below Grand Ecore, the line of march traversed the length of the long island formed by the two branches of the Red River, and recrossed the right arm at Monett's Ferry.
There can be no question of the correctness of these statements of General A.L. Lee. The following quotations from the reports of Admiral Porter to the Secretary of the Navy are taken from page 239, and succeeding pages of the same volume: "FLAG-SHIP CRICKET, GRAND ECORE, April 14, 1864. "The army here has met with a great defeat, no matter what the generals try to make ofit.
We continued to advance, and drove them a mile or more, so completely off the field that there was no other attack made by the enemy in that direction. "That night we fell back again, marching all night and all the next morning, until we reached the camping ground at the end of our first day's march from Grand Ecore.
However, all passed by without loss or serious injury, and on the morning of the 14th, the fleet reached the bar at Campti, where A. J. Smith was met marching up the left bank of the river to its relief. But, although Campti is barely twenty miles above, so crooked and shallow was the river that it was midnight on the 15th before the last of the fleet lay in safety at Grand Ecore.
It was as clear a rout as it was possible for any army to suffer. After consulting with my officers, I concluded, against my own judgment, to fall back to Grand Ecore and reorganize. We held the field of battle. Our dead were buried.
Bee, under instructions, occupied the valley of Cane River with his horse, and had been ordered to keep his pickets close to Grand Ecore and Natchitoches, draw his forage from plantations along the river, and, when the enemy retreated toward Alexandria, fall back before him to Monette's Ferry, which he was expected to hold.
Improving every moment and under a continual fire from the shore, Porter managed to descend something more than half way down the river to Grand Ecore, where he found Banks and his demoralized army.
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