Pleasant Hill LA019

supportedunresolved Taylor says his order to push cavalry toward Blair's Landing was misconstrued, so he could not decide what force he faced on the 9th. Irwin says Churchill probably mistook the lower Sabine road for the Fort Jesup road, and that the Union army had practically given up the idea of being attacked that day. Taylor says an idea prevailed in the woods that his men were firing on each other.

Attributed knowledge from an interested report and a history.

supportedunresolved Irwin says the only water was in the village cisterns, not enough for Banks's men for a day, and that the ambulances had gone off with the wagon train. Taylor says his men were ordered to rely on the bayonet for want of ammunition and time, that his cavalry had been without food for forty hours, and that he withdrew the infantry some 6 miles to water.

Retrospective and interested statements; no supply or ordnance return.

supportedunresolved Irwin says Banks set the wagon train moving toward Grand Ecore and put the army in position at Pleasant Hill to cover it, and that Banks was under orders to be on the Mississippi ready to move against Mobile by May 1. Taylor says pushing Banks beyond Pleasant Hill could not be overestimated, and planned for Churchill and Parsons to outflank the enemy by the Jesup road.

Stated aims and orders from a history and an interested report.

disputedpost_outcome The frozen result reads Union victory and the live result Union Victory. Taylor's order calls it the soldier's victory, and his report says the expedition was defeated and that he held Pleasant Hill next morning after the enemy retreated in the night. Irwin quotes Kirby Smith that Taylor's troops were finally repulsed and thrown into confusion, notes that the earliest Confederate dispatches claimed a signal victory, and says the Confederates were pushed back about a mile with a loss of five guns. NPS says Banks won but retreated.

Retain the original result and engagement interval; later movements and campaign contribution are different measures. No new probabilities or individual causal credit. Banks's retreat and the abandonment of the Shreveport objective are campaign context.

disputedpost_outcome The frozen casualty text reads 3,100 total (US 1,100; CS 2,000); the live field reads 2995 (US 1369; CS 1626). Irwin gives the Union loss as 152 killed, 859 wounded and 495 missing, 1,506 in all, with Emory's division 725, and says Taylor estimated the Confederate loss at 1,500. Taylor says some 400 Union wounded were left in his hands and that the casualties of his cavalry would swell the whole Confederate loss for both battles to 2,500; he also claims the Union army was routed with a loss of at least 10,000 men, an interested claim spanning the two days. Irwin's appendix says the losses of April 8 and 9 could not be separated.

Original casualty returns were not inspected; preserve totals, categories, cutoffs and differences. No canonical reconciliation or casualty-based opening count; related actions must not be added without resolving population overlap. The two-day totals belong to both LA018 and LA019 and are not split or added.

supportedunresolved Taylor blames Churchill for not gaining enough ground to his right or using his cavalry, and says Green, taking the noise for the signal, launched Bee's charge. Irwin says A. J. Smith recalled Shaw and then ordered his whole line forward, and that Banks, after consulting his corps and division commanders, decided to continue the retreat. NPS names Churchill as commanding the flank attack. The frozen commanders are Major Generals Taylor and Banks, as on the live page.

Command roles from an interested report, a history and a summary; the listed commanders do not receive automatic sole credit.

unknownunresolved

No inspected return establishes matched personnel at a common opening boundary. The frozen side-specific numerical strength bounds are blank (missing_numeric_strength). No figure in this pass is adopted as a simultaneous opening force.

disputedunresolved The frozen force field reads Red River Expeditionary Force (Banks's Department of the Gulf) [US] and District of West Louisiana [CS]; the live field reads zero, and NPS says Taylor was outnumbered. Taylor's report says that with 12,000 men he attacked twenty-odd thousand. Irwin says the Union army can hardly have numbered more than 13,000 nor less than 11,000; that Kirby Smith's figures account for 16,000 Confederates while Taylor owns to 12,000; and that the numbers seem to have been nearly equal.

Interested and retrospective estimates without an inspected return; Irwin's range includes cavalry he says was not engaged. None is adopted as a matched opening strength. The live zero is not measured absence.

supportedunresolved Irwin describes Pleasant Hill as a village of a dozen houses about a knoll in a clearing, with Benedict's position unavoidably bad. Taylor says the Union troops were posted along broken hills densely clothed with young pines and protected by logs, rails and some abatis, and that the dense woods hid the field and broke the continuity of his line.

Ground described by a history and an interested report; no map verification.