They had constructed defenses of remarkable strength.
On a bluff, eighty feet above the river, was a series of batteries
mounting in all twenty siege guns. For land defenses they had a
continuous line of parapet of strong profile, beginning at a point on
the river a mile from Port Hudson and extending in a semi-circle for
three or four miles over a country for the most part rough and broken,
and ending again at the river, a half mile north of Port Hudson. At
appropriate positions along this line four bastion works were
constructed and thirty pieces of field artillery were posted. The
average thickness of the parapet was twenty feet, and the depth of the
ditch below the top of the parapet was fifteen feet. The ground behind
the parapet was well adapted for the prompt movement of troops.[34]
On the 24th of May General Banks reached the immediate vicinity of
Port Hudson, and proceeded at once to invest the place.
On the 27th the assault was ordered. Two colored regiments of
Louisiana Native Guards, the First Regiment with all line officers
colored, and the Third with white officers throughout, were put under
command of Colonel John A. Nelson, of the Third Regiment, and assigned
to position on the right of the line, where the assault was begun. The
right began the assault in the morning; for some reason the left did
not assault until late in the afternoon.
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