Civil War fact of the day. On this day in 1864, Richard Taylor wrote to John B. Magruder, expressing his admiration and thanking him for training the troops who served Taylor so well in the Red River Campaign. Taylor also mentioned his continued pursuit of Banks army and how he hoped to inflict more damage to it. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF WEST LOUISIANA, In the Field, Monetts Ferry, La., April 25, 1864. Major General J. B. MAGRUDER, Commanding District of Texas, &c.: MY DEAR GENERAL: If anything can add to the gratification I feel at our recent successes over the enemy in this State it is the receipt of the kind and generous expressions conveyed in your letter of the 16th instant, for I cannot forget the fact that for those successes I am in a great measure indebted to men whom you trained, and who, at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, proved themselves nobly worthy of the heroes of Galveston and Sabine Pass. I am much pleased to learn that you have overcome the difficulties which embarrassed you with the Governor of Texas, and I join you in the hope that you will soon succeed in organizing a material increase to the army under your command. When, before the recent advance of the enemy in this State, I called upon department headquarters for re-enforcements, I was informed that they would reach me on the 17th of March, and I naturally felt some disappointment that with so large a force opposing me they should begin to arrive in small bodies only on the 31st. I have since learned, however, that they delay was unavoidable. I was also disappointed that you did not accompany them, for I should most cheerfully have served under so tried and able a soldier, as I hope to prove should the occasion ever arise which would call you to my district or me to yours. Since the receipt of your letter I have driven the enemy from Natchitoches and from his fortifications at Grand Ecore, and am now 50 miles below the former place, pursuing him rapidly toward Alexandria. He is evidently greatly demoralized, and I have good reason to hope that I shall capture or make him destroy his large fleet, which I do not think the low and falling water will permit him to save. I am, my dear general, with great regard, your friend and servant, R. TAYLOR, Major-General.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 13:17:08 +0000
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