Red River campaign

Overview

The Red River campaign, also known as the Red River expedition, was a major Union offensive campaign in the Trans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War, the campaign taking place from March 10 to May 22, 1864. It was launched through the densely forested Gulf Coastal Plain region between the Red River Valley and central Arkansas towards the end of the war. The offensive was intended to stop Confederate use of the Louisiana port of Shreveport, open an outlet for the sugar and cotton of northern Louisiana, and to split the Confederate lines, allowing the Union to encircle and destroy the Confederate military forces in Louisiana and southern Arkansas. It marked the last major offensive attempted by the Union in the Trans-Mississippi theater.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Red River campaign was the last major Union offensive in the Trans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War, running from March 10 to May 22, 1864. Its objectives were broad: to deny Confederate forces use of Shreveport as a Louisiana port, to open access to the sugar and cotton of northern Louisiana, and to split Confederate lines in a way that would allow Union forces to encircle and destroy Confederate military strength in Louisiana and southern Arkansas. Launched through the densely forested Gulf Coastal Plain between the Red River Valley and central Arkansas, the campaign represented the Union's most ambitious attempt to resolve the Trans-Mississippi theater late in the war. Its failure to achieve these goals left Confederate forces in Louisiana and Arkansas operationally intact and foreclosed further large-scale Union action in the region for the remainder of the conflict.