I am about to have the following excerpt published in December so all rights are reserved.

This is how I perceive the fight. Please feel free to constructively add your own opinions. It's my perception that Cornay was not on Deloges Bluff with Benton but up stream nearer to Montgomery due to the range of the guns and the attack which took place on the river at Montgomery.

Brent's account is a good source if you are interested only in the locations of artillery after the Battle of Pleasant Hill. (see footnotes) Alwyn Barr's work is also very helpful. Barr, Alwyn. “Confederate Artillery in Western Louisiana, 1864” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association V No. 1 (Winter 1964), 53-73.

Col. James B. Likens’ 35th Texas Cavalry and the 15th Texas Infantry under Lt. Col. James E. Harrison's were dispatched to Montgomery, Rapides Parish (now Grant Parish), Louisiana. Lt. Col. Harrison wrote in a letter to William Ballinger the next day that the soldiers on April 26, 1864 crept over the side of the wooded hill overlooking Montgomery on the opposite bank. They hid behind trees and could clearly see the USS Eastport, sailors, and the looting of a residence. They could also see crewmen taking stuff from the town and loading the boat. (1)

Col. Harrison described taking aim with his pistol “at a big portly captain sitting on a big arm chair who fell like a turtle from a log through the hatch” and signaling by his shot to open fire on the surprise attack. Harrison related “Such confusion, I never saw, it was fully 10 min. before they could arrange themselves to fight, but when they did by going above and below us and in front, the shells and missiles came like a hailstorm and the whole earth shook. I made my line fall flat on the ground and lay and shoot deliberately we did them great damage, in killed and wounded, during the engagement. Their best boat, a large ironclad monster in turning to give us a broadside grounded so fast she could not put off and we would not let her get help She blew up shaking the earth and scattering large timbers in some instances for 200 yards on the bank. She burned. Another (ed. note- The side wheeler Champion No.5) in going off ran aground and was fired and burned.” (2)

In his April 28, 1864 report written aboard the USS Fort Hindman Lieut. Cmdr. Seth L. Phelps, formerly the commander of the destroyed USS Eastport, wrote that only about 20 men and two officers were aboard the USS Eastport when it came under attack because the rest of the men were ashore “wooding”. Phelps reported Acting Ensign S. Pool was killed and there was much confusion. According to Phelps, in obedience to the order from Rear-Adm. Porter, the men of the USS Eastport were transferred to the USS Fort Hindman, their grounded ship was loaded with explosives, then detonated.
(3)

Meanwhile about 200 sharpshooters under Lt. Col. John H. Caudle of Alexander’s 34th Texas Cavalry/2nd Texas Partisan Rangers protected the St. Mary’s Cannoneers/1st Louisiana Field Battery under Captain Florian Octave Cornay located on a bluff just down the Red River from Montgomery. The St. Mary’s Cannoneers had two 12 lb. brass guns and two howitzers which Cornay and his men used with great effect. One shot hit the boiler of the side wheeler Champion No. 3 instantly scalding to death 100 and mortally wounding 87 African-Americans who were being used as human shields. The tinclads USS Fort Hindman, USS Cricket and USS Juliet barely made their way through the gauntlet. The USS Cricket, with Rear Adm. Porter aboard, was hit 38 times and lost nearly half of its crew as killed or wounded. Porter later wrote in vivid detail about having to take the wheel of the ship amid the chaos of death and destruction. Brig. Gen. St. John Richardson Liddell's soldiers created a cross-fire from the other side of the river adding to the misery of the US Navy on that fateful day. The next day at De Loach’s Bluff the carnage continued. (4)

(1) Brent, Joseph L. “Operations of the Artillery of the Army of Western Louisiana, After the Battle of Pleasant Hill” Southern Historical Society Papers IX No. 6 (June 1881), 257-259.
OR Series 1 XXXIV (Part 1) 580 & 583.
Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin Dashiell Papers #2D44, W.T. Mechling sub-collection and William Ballinger Collection #2A188 April 27, 1864 letter James E. Harrison to William Ballinger
ORN Vol. XXVI 168-9
(2) Ibid
(3) Ibid
(4) ORN Vol. XXVI 74-79.
U.S. War Department. Navy Casualty Reports, 1776-1941: Deaths Due to Enemy Action. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1962. 26.