For the next three months, the unit remained in Baton Rouge (with the exception of four companies briefly detailed on the Placquemines expedition), conducting guard duty and drilling while additional regiments from the North arrived.

[1] On January 3, 1863, four of the ten companies of the 52nd Massachusetts were ordered to prepare immediately for combat and to travel roughly 20 miles downriver to Plaquemine, Louisiana, where Confederates were threatening the Union supply lines.

The men remembered the duty there as disagreeable due to strong secessionist sentiments in the town, a scarcity of military rations which led to liberal foraging and looting of the surrounding plantations on the part of the troops, and the muddy condition of the roads.

The army's role in this operation was to conduct a [feint] towards Port Hudson, or a reconnaissance-in-force, that would provided a diversion and increase the Navy's chances of success.

The next day, they advanced to within a few hundred yards of the Confederate batteries at Port Hudson, moving through deep swamps to probe the enemy's position.

Nonetheless, the movement through extremely difficult conditions which put them far in advance of other Union troops earned them commendations from their brigade and division commanders.

[5] In preparation for an assault on Port Hudson, Gen. Banks intended to remove the threat posed by Confederate forces in western Louisiana and also to claim forage and supplies in the region.

After the Confederates abandoned their position at Fort Bisland and retreated northward, the 52nd Massachusetts was one of the units that marched in pursuit, reaching New Iberia, Louisiana, in two days.

At Barre's Landing, Union forces found considerable provisions and supplies abandoned by the Confederates including many horses and large quantities of cotton, molasses, and sugar.

[3] During the second assault on June 14, the 52nd Massachusetts advanced with their brigade over the extremely rough terrain in front of the Confederate ramparts at Port Hudson.

Ditches, many felled trees, large stumps and steep ground made an advance under heavy fire virtually impossible.

In making this voyage, they had the honor to be the first Union regiment to travel up the river recently opened by the surrenders of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Port Hudson.