For Bales

Something for the weekend.  For Bales.  A Confederate song mocking the defeat of the Union forces under Major General Nathaniel Banks, one of the more inept political generals, in 1864.  The Red River campaign had as its objective the capture of Shreveport, Louisiana, in northwestern Louisiana, the largest city still under the control of the Confederates in the Pelican state, and the capture of hundreds of thousands of bales of cotton on plantations along the Red River.  The bales of cotton were eagerly eyed by Union speculators and the entire campaign had an unsavory plundering feel to it.  In any case the campaign ended in disaster for the Union.

Here is a video of an extensive presentation on the campaign by Dale Phillips on the Red River campaign:

Here is the official report of the campaign by General Kirby Smith, the Confederate theater commander in the Trans-Mississippi:

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