Desertion and the end of the War

In March 1865, bad news reached the forts from other parts of the Confederacy. The worse news arrived on April 15; General Robert E Lee was forced to surrender to Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant. As these reports reached the forts, soldiers began to desert their posts.

On May 8, 1865, Brigadier General Joseph L. Brent, commander of Front Line Forces in southern Louisiana, received orders from Major General Harry T. Hays, the commander of the District of Western Louisiana, to evacuate the soldiers from the forts and destroy all artillery, central magazines and bombproofs. The soldiers still garrisoned at the forts refused to evacuate or destroy the forts.

By the end of May, only 86 soldier remained. On June 3, 1865, a Union occupying, force took control of Fort Randolph and Fort Buhlow. The war, in this part of Louisiana was over. Although no attack took place, the forts represent one last stand by the Confederate Army to stop another Union invasion up the Red River. Historians believe that this time, with the strategic locations of the forts and the Missouri anchored just below them, that an invasion would have been slowed or completely stopped.