 However, General Sherman made a special request that they join General A. J. Smith's forces who had been assigned to the Red River Campaign, along with troops from the Army of the Gulf, under General Nathaniel P. Banks, and Admiral David Dixon Porter's Mississippi River Squadron.After agreeing to Sherman's request, the regiment joined the Right Wing of the XVI Corps, under the command of General Mower.On March 10, 1864, the contingent began a voyage from Vicksburg down the Mississippi and up the Red River to Simmesport, Louisiana, where they disembarked on March 12.