Red River Campaign Conclusion

From Wikipedia.

Strength and casualties:

Union--   30,000 with 5,500 casualties
Confederate--  6,000-15,000 with 4,300 casualties.

**  A Union failure and the campaign did not have a major impact on the war.

**  It might have prolonged the war, though because it diverted the Union effort to capture the much more important Mobile, Alabama.

**  It effectively ended Union General Nathaniel Banks' military career.

**  The presence of cotton speculators and use of military boats to remove the cotton plagued his political career in later years.

**  Admiral Porter and the Navy seized a whole lot of cotton and made a lot of money.

**  The Confederacy lost two very able generals in Green and Mouton.

**  The Confederacy suffered casualties it could afford to lose.

**  It really wasn't a pressing military objective because with the fall of Vicksburg and Union control of the Mississippi River, the area was already cut off.

--Old Secesh