056-640408-[H]Mansfield.20 - WDS Forgotten Campaigns

(Historical 20 minute turns) The Battle of Mansfield was the pivotal encounter of the Red River Campaign. Actually, Red River was not a "Forgotten Campaign." Written about, studied by military professionals, on demand to be featured in a JTS product, the campaign had a profound affect on the war in the west. It was a campaign of conquest and cotton. While the Union fleet threaded its way up the Red River, Nathaniel Banks with an army of over 30,000 men paralleled the advance on land. Maj Gen Richard Taylor led the woefully outnumbered Confederate force in Louisiana. Until sufficient troops could be scraped together to resist Banks, all Taylor could do was retreat, almost all the way to Texas. Finally, joined by troops rushed up from Texas, and a little army of Arkansas and Missouri troops sent to aid him from Arkansas, Taylor turned at bay in front of the town of Mansfield. Union troops, approaching on a narrow sandy track through the pinewoods, came upon an opening in the trees with Confederate troops aligned in a classic L-shaped ambush. The Scenario starts at 8 AM, as leading Union elements approach Sabine Crossroads. Reference: "One Damn Blunder From Beginning to End: The Red River Campaign of 1864" by Gary D Joiner.