Confederate & Union Commanders at Port Hudson

A former governor of Massachusetts and speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Banks was appointed a major general of volunteers by President Lincoln at the outbreak of war. He served as commander of the V Army Corps, later the II Army Corps, and then commanded the Military District of Washington until he succeeded General Benjamin Butler in late 1862 as commander of the Department of the Gulf. In early 1863 he led a portion of the XIX Army Corps into the Teche country of Louisiana. He then laid siege to Port Hudson. Several attempts to storm the works met with bloody failure. Upon learning of the fall of Vicksburg, the garrison at Port Hudson surrendered to Banks. In May of 1864 Banks resigned from the army and was again elected to Congress from Massachusetts.
 
 
 
 

A West Point graduate of the class of 1836, Thomas Sherman served in the Mexican War and was made brigadier general in May of 1861. He saw active service in the Port Royal expedition and the siege of Corinth. He later became commander of the second division of the XIX Army Corps under General Banks. The 26th Connecticut was a part of the second division. At Port Hudson, Sherman led his division in the May 27th charge across "Slaughter's Field." During the charge Union troops met a murderous fire of mini balls, grape, and canister. Not long after the assault began, General Sherman was wounded in the right leg by grape shot. He was carried from the field and the leg was later amputated. He remained in the army and was put in charge of the defenses of New Orleans. He retired in 1870 with the rank of Major General.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Twice elected Mayor of Portland, Maine, and once a state legislator, Neal Dow was appointed colonel of the 13th Maine volunteers in 1861. He was raised to brigadier general less than five months later. In the XIX Army Corps he commanded the first brigade of the second division. This brigade consisted of the 128th New York, the 26th Connecticut, the 15th New Hampshire, and the 6th Michigan. Gen. Dow was a temperance crusader. He was responsible for the "Maine Law" that outlawed liquor in that state. He carried this crusade into the Union Army. One time General Dow discovered a peddler selling liquor out of a house near an army camp. The General took every bottle he could find and smashed them across a porch railing, but not before he saw to it that the owner of the property was jailed. General Dow joined General Sherman in leading his brigade across "Slaughters Field" during the assault on Port Hudson of May 27th. He was wounded during the charge. While recovering from his injuries, he was taken prisoner by the Confederates and sent to Libby prison. He was later exchanged and resigned his commission in 1864 due to poor health.
 
 
 
 
 

A graduate of West Point, class of 1843, Franklin Gardner saw active service in the Mexican War and the Seminole Indian War. At the outbreak of the war he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army. He served in Tennessee and Mississippi, and commanded a calvalry brigade at the Battle of Shiloh. He was promoted to brigadier general in April of 1862, and promoted yet again, to major general, in December of that year, at which time he was placed in the command of the Confederate stronghold at Port Hudson. After the capitulation of Port Hudson, Gardner was taken prisoner but was soon exchanged and served out the remainder of the war in Confederate service in Mississippi.