"Lieut. Rhodes...deployed his men at intervals so as to occupy the whole ridge commenced firing on the enemy [black Union troops] both front and rear doing terrible execution and throwing them into confusion and disorder, they still continued to advance until they reached to within about two hundred yards of the extreme left, when the artillery opened on them with cannister and at the same time the infantry (in their great anxiety to fire, firing without orders) opened on them driving them back in confusion and disorder with terrible slaughter."
—Colonel Winchester B. Shelby, 39th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, Commander of Mississippi Redoubt
Scene of one of the deadliest Union assaults of the Port Hudson siege, Mississippi Redoubt is located on the extreme left of the Confederate line. These works commanded the high ground over-looking the Telegraph Road from Port Hudson to Bayou Sara. Under the command of Colonel Winchester B. Shelby, Mississippi Redoubt was manned by the 39th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, a detachment of the 9th Louisiana (Wingfield's) Partisan Rangers, and cannons from Battery B, 1st Mississippi Light Artillery.
Mississippi Redoubt was the focal point of only one large assault during the siege. On the morning of May 27, Shelby's forward rifle pits.came
under attack from the 1st and 3rd Louisiana (U.S.) Native Guards regiments. Through it only reached a point 200 yards in front of Shelby's rifle pits, the assault was significant as the first time in U.S. military history that black soldiers participated in a large-scale attack.
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