Besides the supplies from New Orleans, the Confederate troops were maintaining control over the Confederate supply center in Amite, 60 miles east of Baton Rouge.
Rebel forces decided to defend Baton Rouge from the south. Northern troops were traveling by ship up the Mississippi River to the capitol city. The Confederates hoped to destroy the ships before they got to Baton Rouge and spare the city's residents, homes and businesses from the effects of battle. A seemingly good strategy, but it failed. Control of the state fell to Union forces.
In early August, Confederate Gen. John C. Breckinridge planned a combined land/water assault to gain back control of the state capital. Advancing west from their position east of the city, the Confederate land forces, were only ten miles away on August 4. At daybreak they were in position to attack. Then, Union gunboats in the Mississippi river began shelling the Rebel lines. And the Confederate ship, the CSS Ram Arkansas, suffered engine failure that day and the next. The engagement continued through August 5 with the Northern faces making two small retreats to more more defensible positions. But in the end, because of the failure of their water attack, the Confederates failed in their efforts to regain the Louisiana state capital. Baton Rouge remained under Union control for almost 15 years until the end of Reconstruction in April 1877
Confederate losses included 84 killed, 313 wounded and 56 captured or missing men. Baton Rouge was held by the Union forces throughout the rest of the war. From the area, the Union conducted campaigns against other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi.
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