[kms61]

The Confederates won the day at Mansfield but were repelled at Pleasant Hill the next day and failed to finish off the Union forces. Thus you might call it a stalemate. In the meantime, the Red River was falling and threatened to strand the Naval component of the expedition.

The Union forces under Banks (Army) and Porter (Navy) withdres, failing in their goal of capturing Shreveport and separating Texas from the rest of the Confederacy.

Most historians contend that the entire expedition was militarily unnecessary and the Union troops would have been put to better use supporting the attack on Mobile.

Norther DeSoto Parish has experienced a lot of growth in recent years and has become a bedroom community of Shreveport. With that in mind I wouldn't venture a guess whether these were kids from the underclass, or were your typical unsupervised, undisciplined suburban types. Could be either.

[Theodore R.]

As I recall, Nathaniel P. Banks was a most inept Union commander, right? I had completely forgotten about Pleasant Hill being the next day and it being a Union victory. None of the NW LA fighting had any impact on the outcome of the war; so it is not mentioned in basic history textbooks. I do recall visiting the Mansfield battlefield years ago with a cousin. There was very little there, but some preservation work has since been done at the site.