19th Tennessee Infantry - Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge

The 19th's division was removed from Vicksburg and sent into Louisiana to attack Federal positions at Baton Rouge. By this time, the 19th Tennessee was a regiment in name only and could only muster less than 100 healthy men, so they were consolidated with the remnants of other regiments to form a battalion. One-third of the Confederate force had no shoes, many lacked shirts and coats, and some were almost naked. They carried no tents and had only two days worth of rations in their haversacks.

The heat and humidity of the march took their toll, as well as a lack of sources of clean drinking water. The men of the 19th were soon beset with exhaustion, fever, chills, and bloody diarrhea from dysentery. By the time they reached the Comite River, ten miles from Baton Rouge, only about 2,600 effective soldiers remained and many of those were seriously ill. When the divisions marched on the Union positions just before dawn, fog limited the ability to see more than "twenty steps" and there were not enough troops to form the standard double battle line.

Still, the Confederates managed to press the attack and drove the Union army back, but only to a prepared defensive position. The CSS Arkansas, a Rebel gunboat, had been intended to provide support, but it had run aground. With only about 1,000 soldiers still fit to fight and having run out of water, the Rebels could not risk another attack. Civilians helped gather the wounded and the dead.

The Confederates occupied Port Hudson for a time and fearing another attack by them, Union forces abandoned Baton Rouge on August 18.