Page "Red River Campaign" Paragraph 30

Constant cavalry and naval skirmishing had been going on since March 21.

On April 2, Brig.

Gen. Albert Lindley Lee's division of Union cavalry collided with 1, 500 arriving Confederate Texas cavalrymen.

These Confederates would continue to resist any Union advance.

Union intelligence, meanwhile, had determined that there were additional forces besides Taylor and the cavalry up the road from them.

All the senior Union officers expressed doubts that there would be any serious Confederate opposition, except for the naval flotilla.

Banks ' army followed Taylor and the cavalry into a dense pine forest area away from the river, probably to keep them in their front.

Approaching Pleasant Hill, the Union army was excessively long due both to the existence of only a few camping areas with water, and there was no monitoring of the position of the rear elements.

Taylor kept moving back toward Shreveport.