OldReliable1862
First Sergeant
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2017
- Location
- Georgia
In early 1863, Confederate Major General Richard Taylor proposed an audacious plan to move down the Bayou Pierre and recapture New Orleans. Nathaniel Banks had left the city very poorly defended (a 250 man detachment!) after moving most of his forces to Port Hudson, and the time seemed right. Taylor was even assembling a makeshift flotilla of his own, though their golden opportunity to crush the Union ships on the Atchafalaya was hopelessly bungled (http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2013/04/12/the-great-naval-showdown-that-wasnt/).Taking back the city would surely force the Union to shift the focus from Vicksburg and Port Hudson, but Taylor's superior, General Edmund Kirby Smith, believed the best way to aid the defenders of Vicksburg would be to threaten the Union supply lines on the western bank of the Mississippi. While Taylor still managed to take Brashear City, Kirby Smith still sent him to attack the Union supply line at Miliken's Bend.
Could Taylor have managed to capture, and hold, New Orleans had Kirby Smith given him Walker's Texas Division (the two men both needed the division for their respective plans), and the attack on the Atchafalaya gone according to plan?
Could Taylor have managed to capture, and hold, New Orleans had Kirby Smith given him Walker's Texas Division (the two men both needed the division for their respective plans), and the attack on the Atchafalaya gone according to plan?