Instructed, as well as warned, by the events of the previous summer, the President now resolved on a combined attempt by two strong columns. On the 21st of October he sent Major-General John A. McClernand to Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, with confidential orders, authorizing him to raise troops for an expedition, under his command, to move against Vicksburg from Cairo or Memphis as a place of rendezvous, and "to clear the Mississippi River and open navigation to New Orleans." Perhaps because of the confidence still felt in Grant by the President himself, although within narrowing limits, Grant was not to share the fate of McClellan, of Buell, and of so many others. The secret orders were not made known to him, yet it was settled that he was to retain the command of his department, while the principal active operations of the army within its limits were to be conducted by another. Even for this consideration it is rather more than likely he was indebted in a great degree to the exceptional advantage he enjoyed in having at all times at the seat of government, in the person of Washburne, a strong and devoted party of one, upon whose assistance the government daily found it convenient to lean.

A few days later, on the 31st of October, Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks was sent to New York and Boston, with similar orders, to collect in New England and New York a force for the co-operating column from New Orleans. On the 8th of November this was followed by the formal order of the President assigning Banks to the command of the Department of the Gulf, including the State of Texas.

This assignment was wholly unexpected by Banks. It was, indeed, unsought and unsolicited, and the first offer, from the President himself, came as a surprise. At the close of Pope's campaign, when the reorganized Army of the Potomac, once more under McClellan, was in march to meet Lee in Maryland, Banks had been forced, by injuries received at Cedar Mountain, to give up the command of the Twelfth Army Corps to the senior division commander, Brigadier-General A. S. Williams. As soon as this was reported at headquarters, McClellan created a new organization under the name of the "Defences of Washington," and placed Banks in command.

For some time after this Banks was unable to leave his room; yet, within forty-eight hours, a mob of thirty thousand wounded men and convalescents, who knew not where to go, and of stragglers, who meant not to go where they were wanted, was cleared out of the streets of Washington, and pandemonium was at an end. Order was rather created than restored, since none had existed in any direction. The Fifth Corps was sent to join the army in the field; within a fortnight, a full army corps of able-bodied stragglers followed; the fortifications were completed; ample garrisons of instructed artillerists were provided. These became "the Heavies" of Grant's campaigns. Almost another full army corps was organized from the new regiments. Finally the whole force of the defences, about equal in numbers to Lee's army, was so disposed that Washington was absolutely secure. The dispositions for the defence of the capital and the daily operations of the command were clearly and constantly made known to the President and Secretary of War as well as to the General-in-chief. Thus it was that, less than two months later, in the closing days of October, President Lincoln sent for Banks and said: "You have let me sleep in peace for the first time since I came here. I want you to go to Louisiana and do the same thing there."

On the 9th of November Halleck communicated to Banks the orders of the President to proceed immediately to New Orleans with the troops from Baltimore and elsewhere, under Emory, already assembling in transports at Fort Monroe. An additional force of ten thousand men, he was told, would be sent to him from Boston and New York as soon as possible. Though this order was never formally revoked or modified, yet in fact it was from the first a dead letter, and Banks, who received it in New York, remained there to complete the organization and to look after the collection and transport of the additional force mentioned in Halleck's instructions. Including the eight regiments of Emory, but not counting four regiments of infantry and five battalions of cavalry diverted to other fields, the reinforcements for the Department of the Gulf finally included thirty-nine regiments of infantry, six batteries of artillery, and one battalion of cavalry. Of the infantry twenty-one regiments were composed of officers and men enlisted to serve for nine months. Even of this brief period many weeks had, in some cases, already elapsed. To command the brigades and divisions, when organized, Major-General Christopher C. Auger, and Brigadier-Generals Cuvier Grover, William Dwight, George L. Andrews, and James Bowen were ordered to report to Banks.

The work of chartering the immense fleet required to transport this force, with its material of all kinds, was confided by the government to Cornelius Vanderbilt, possibly in recognition of his recent princely gift to the nation of the finest steamship of his fleet, bearing his own name. This service Vanderbilt performed with his usual vigor, "laying hands," as he said, "upon every thing that could float or steam," including, it must be added, more than one vessel to which it would have been rash to ascribe either of these qualities.

Before the embarkation each vessel was carefully inspected by a board of officers, usually composed of the inspector-general or an officer of his department, an experienced quartermaster, and an officer of rank and intelligence, who was himself to sail on the vessel. This last was a new, but, as soon appeared, a very necessary precaution. When every thing was nearly ready the embarkation began at New York, and as each vessel was loaded she was sent to sea with sealed orders directing her master and the commanding officer of the troops to make the best of their way to Ship Island, and there await the further instructions of the general commanding. Ship Island was chosen for the place of meeting because of the great draught of water of some of the vessels. At the same time Emory's force, embarking at Hampton Roads, set out under convoy of the man-of-war Augusta, Commander E. G. Parrott, for the same destination with similar orders.

For three months the Florida had lain at anchor in the harbor at Mobile, only waiting for a good opportunity to enter upon her historic career of destruction. Since the 20th of August the Alabama was known to have been scourging our commerce in the North Atlantic from the Azores to the Antilles. On the 5th of December she took a prize off the northern coast of San Domingo. Relying on the information with which he was freely furnished, Semmes expected to find the expedition off Galveston about the middle of January. In the dead of night, "after the midwatch was set and all was quiet," he meant, in the words of his executive officer,(1) slowly to approach the transports, "steam among them with both batteries in action, pouring in a continuous discharge of shell, and sink them as we went." Fortunately Semmes's information, though profuse and precise, was not quite accurate, for it brought him off Galveston on the 13th of January: the wrong port, a month too late. What might have happened is shown by the ease with which he then destroyed the Hatteras.

To guard against these dangers, it had been the wish of the government, and was a part of the original plan, that the transports sailing from New York should be formed in a single fleet and proceed, under strong convoy, to its destination. However, it soon became evident that as the rate of sailing of a fleet is governed by that of its slowest ship, the expedition, thus organized, would be forced to crawl along the coast at a speed hardly greater than five miles an hour. This would not only have exposed three ships out of five, and five regiments out of six, for at least twice the necessary time to the perils of the sea, increased by having to follow an inshore track at this inclement season; it would not only have introduced chances of detention and risks of collision and of separation, but the peril from the Alabama would have been augmented in far greater degree than the security afforded by any naval force the government could just then spare. Therefore, the slow ships were loaded and sent off first and the faster ones kept back to the last; then, each making the best of its way to Ship Island, nearly all came in together. Thus, when the North Star, bearing the flag of the commanding general and sailing from New York on the 4th of December, arrived in the early morning of the 13th at Ship Island, nearly the whole fleet lay at anchor or in the offing; and as soon as a hasty inspection could be completed and fresh orders given, the expedition got under way for New Orleans. The larger vessels, however, like the Atlantic, Baltic, and Ericsson being unable to cross the bar, lay at anchor at Ship Island until they could be lightened.

Truly grand as was the spectacle afforded by the black hulls and white sails of this great concourse of ships at anchor, in the broad roadstead, yet a grander sight still was reserved for the next day, a lovely Sunday, as all these steamers in line ahead, the North Star leading, flags flying, bands playing, the decks blue with the soldiers of the Union, majestically made their way up the Mississippi. Most of those on board looked for the first time, with mingled emotions, over the pleasant lowlands of Louisiana, and all were amused at the mad antics of the pageant-loving negroes, crowding and capering on the levee as plantation after plantation was passed. So closely had the secret been kept that, until the transports got under way from Ship Island for the purpose, probably not more than three or four officers, if so many, of all the force really knew its destination. Nor was it until the two generals met at New Orleans that Butler learned that Banks was to relieve him.

On the 15th of December Banks took the command of the Department of the Gulf, although the formal orders were not issued until the 17th. The officers of the department, as well as of the personal staff of General Butler, were relieved from duty and permitted to accompany him to the North. The new staff of the department included Lieutenant-Colonel Richard B. Irwin, Assistant Adjutant-General; Lieutenant-Colonel William S. Abert, Assistant Inspector-General; Major G. Norman Lieber, Judge-Advocate; Colonel Samuel B. Holabird, Chief Quartermaster; Colonel Edward G. Beckwith, Chief Commissary of Subsistence; Surgeon Richard H. Alexander, Medical Director; Major David C. Houston, Chief Engineer; Captain Henry L. Abbot, Chief of Topographical Engineers; First-Lieutenant Richard M. Hill, Chief of Ordnance; Captain Richard Arnold, Chief of Artillery; Captain William W. Rowley, Chief Signal Officer.

Banks's orders from the government were to go up the Mississippi and open the river, in co-operation with McClernand's expedition against Vicksburg. "As the ranking general of the Southwest," Halleck's orders proceeded, "you are authorized to assume control of any military forces from the upper Mississippi which may come within your command. The line of the division between your department and that of Major-General Grant is, therefore, left undecided for the present, and you will exercise superior authority as far north as you may ascend the river. The President regards the opening of the Mississippi river as the first and most important of all our military and naval operations, and it is hoped that you will not lose a moment in accomplishing it."

Immediately on assuming command Banks ordered Grover to take all the troops that were in condition for service at once to Baton Rouge, under the protection of the fleet, and there disembark and go into camp. Augur was specially charged with the arrangements for the despatch of the troops from New Orleans. Before starting they were carefully inspected, and all that were found to be affected with disease of a contagious or infectious character were sent ashore and isolated.

On the morning of the 16th the advance of Grover's expedition got under way, under convoy of a detachment of Farragut's fleet, led by Alden in the Richmond. Grover took with him about 4,500 men, but when all were assembled at Baton Rouge there were twelve regiments, three batteries, and two troops of cavalry. The Confederates, who were in very small force, promptly evacuated Baton Rouge, and Grover landed and occupied the place on the 17th of December. After sending off the last of the troops, Augur went up and took command. The lines constructed by Paine in August were occupied and strengthened, and all arrangements promptly made for the defence in view of an attack, such as might not unnaturally be looked for from Port Hudson, whose garrison then numbered more than 12,000 effectives. The two places are but a long day's march apart. Since the occupation in August, the Confederate forces at Port Hudson had been commanded by Brigadier-General William N. R. Beall. On the 28th of December, however, he was relieved by Major-General Frank Gardner, who retained the command thenceforward until the end. While the war lasted, Baton Rouge continued to be held by the Union forces without opposition or even serious menace.

An attempt to occupy Galveston was less fortunate. This movement was ordered by Banks a few days after his arrival at New Orleans, apparently under the pressure of continued importunity from Andrew J. Hamilton, and in furtherance of the policy that had led the government to send him with the expedition, nominally as a brigadier-general, but under a special commission from the President that named him as military governor of Texas. On the 21st of December, three companies, D, G, and I, of the 42d Massachusetts, under Colonel Isaac S. Burrell, were sent from New Orleans without disembarking from the little Saxon, on which they had made the journey from New York. With them went Holcomb's 2d Vermont battery, leaving their horses to follow ten days later on the Cambria, with the horses and men of troops A and B of the Texas cavalry. Protected by the flotilla under Commander W. B. Renshaw, comprising his own vessel, the Westfield, the gunboats Harriet Lane, Commander J. M. Wainwright; Clifton, Commander Richard L. Law; Owasco, Lieutenant Henry Wilson; and Sachem, Acting-Master Amos Johnson; and the schooner Corypheus, Acting-Master Spears, Burrell landed unopposed at Kuhn's Wharf on the 24th, and took nominal possession of the town in accordance with his instructions. These were indeed rather vague, as befitted the shadowy nature of the objects to be accomplished. "The situation of the people of Galveston," wrote General Banks, "makes it expedient to send a small force there for the purpose of their protection, and also to afford such facilities as may be possible for recruiting soldiers for the military service of the United States." Burrell was cautioned not to involve himself in such difficulty as to endanger the safety of his command, and it was rather broadly hinted that he was not to take orders from General Hamilton. In reality, Burrell's small force occupied only the long wharf, protected by barricades at the shore end, and seaward by the thirty-two guns of the fleet, lying at anchor within 300 yards.

Magruder, who had been barely a month in command of the Confederate forces in Texas, had given his first attention to the defenceless condition of the coast, menaced as it was by the blockading fleet, and thus it happened that Burrell's three companies, performing their maiden service on picket between wind and water, found themselves confronted by the two brigades of Scurry and Sibley, Cook's regiment of heavy artillery, and Wilson's light battery, with twenty-eight guns, and two armed steamboats, having their vulnerable parts protected by cotton bales.

Long before dawn on the 1st of January, 1863, under cover of a heavy artillery fire, the position of the 42d Massachusetts was assaulted by two storming parties of 300 and 500 men respectively, led by Colonels Green, Bagby, and Cook, the remainder of the troops being formed under Scurry in support. A brisk fight followed, but the defenders had the concentrated fire of the fleet to protect them; the scaling ladders proved too short to reach the wharf, and as day began to break, the baffled assailants were about to draw off, when, suddenly, the Confederate gunboats appeared on the scene and in a few moments turned the defeat into a signal victory. The Neptune was disabled and sunk by the Harriet Lane, the Harriet Lane was boarded and captured by the Bayou City, the Westfield ran aground and was blown up by her gallant commander, and soon the white flag floated from the masts of all the Union fleet. Wainwright and Wilson had been killed; Renshaw, with his executive officer, Zimmermann, and his chief engineer, Green, had perished with the ship. The survivors were given three hours to consider terms.

When Burrell saw the flag of truce from the fleet, he too showed the white flag and surrendered to the commander of the Confederate troops. The Confederates ceased firing on him as soon as they perceived his signal, but the navy, observing that the fire on shore went on for some time, notwithstanding the naval truce, thought it had been violated; accordingly the Clifton, Owasco, Sachem, and Corypheus put out to sea, preceded by the army transport steamers Saxon and Mary A. Boardman. On the latter vessel were the military governor of Texas, with his staff, and the men and guns of Holcomb's battery.

The Confederates lost 26 killed and 117 wounded; the Union troops 5 killed and 15 wounded, and all the survivors (probably about 250 in number) were made prisoners save the adjutant, Lieutenant Charles A. Davis, who had been sent off to communicate with the fleet. The navy lost 29 killed, 31 wounded, and 92 captured. So ended this inauspicious New Year's day.

The transports made the best of their way to New Orleans with the news. The Cambria, with the Texas cavalry and the horses of the 2d Vermont battery, arrived in the offing on the evening of the 2d of January. For two days a strong wind and high sea rendered fruitless all efforts to communicate with the shore; then learning the truth, the troops at once returned to New Orleans.

Orders had been left with the guard ship at Pilot Town to send the transport steamers, Charles Osgood and Shetucket, with the remainder of the 42d, directly to Galveston. It was now necessary to change these orders, and to do it promptly. The bad news reached headquarters early in the afternoon of the 3d January: "Stop every thing going to Galveston," was at once telegraphed to the Pass.

(1) "Cruise and Combats of the Alabama," by her Executive Officer, John Mackintosh Kell.—"Century War Book," vol. iv., p. 603.

CHAPTER VI. ORGANIZING THE CORPS.

Meanwhile the new troops continued to come from New York, although it was not until the 11th of February that the last detachments landed. The work of organizing the whole available force of the department for the task before it was pursued with vigor. In order to form the moving column, as well as for the purposes of administration, so that the one might not interfere with the other, the main body of troops was composed of four divisions of three brigades each. The garrisons of the defences and the permanent details for guard and provost duty were kept separate. While this was in progress orders came from the War Office dated the 5th of January, 1863, by which all the forces in the Department of the Gulf were designated as the Nineteenth Army Corps, to take effect December 14, 1862, and Banks was named by the President as the corps commander.

To Augur was assigned the First division, to Sherman the Second, to Emory the Third, and to Grover the Fourth. Weitzel, retaining his old brigade, became the second in command in Augur's division. In making up the brigades the regiments were so selected and combined as to mingle the veterans with the raw levies, and to furnish, in right of seniority, the more capable and experienced of the colonels as brigade commanders. Andrews, who had been left in New York to bring up the rear of the expedition, became Chief-of-Staff on the 6th of March, and Bowen was made Provost-Marshal General.

To each division three batteries of artillery were given, including at least one battery belonging to the regular army, thus furnishing, except for the second division, an experienced regular officer as chief of artillery of the division. The cavalry was kept, for the most part, unattached, mainly serving in La Fourche, at Baton Rouge, and with the moving column. The 21st Indiana, changed into the 1st Indiana heavy artillery, was told off to man the siege train, for which duty it was admirably suited. When all had joined, the whole force available for active operations that should not uncover New Orleans was about 25,000. Two thirds, however, were new levies, and of these half were nine months' men. Some were armed with guns that refused to go off. Others did not know the simplest evolutions. In one instance, afterwards handsomely redeemed, the colonel, having to disembark his men, could think of no way save by the novel command, "Break ranks, boys, and get ashore the best way you can." The cavalry, except the six old companies, was poor and quite insufficient in numbers. Of land and water transportation, both indispensable to any possible operation, there was barely enough for the movement of a single division. In Washington, Banks had been led to expect that he might count on the depots or the country for all the material required for moving his army; yet Butler found New Orleans on the brink of starvation; the people had now to be fed, as well as the army, and the provisions that formerly came from the West by the great river had now to find their way from the North by the Atlantic and the Gulf. The depots were calculated, and barely sufficed, for the old force of the department, while the country could furnish very little at best, and nothing at all until it should be occupied.

Again, until he reached his post, Banks was not informed that the Confederates were in force anywhere on the river save Vicksburg, yet, in fact, Port Hudson, 250 miles below Vicksburg and 135 miles above New Orleans, was found strongly intrenched with twenty-nine heavy guns in position and garrisoned by 12,000 men. Long before Banks could have assembled and set in motion a force sufficient to cope with this enemy behind earthworks, the 12,000 became 16,000. Moreover, Banks was not in communication either with Grant or with McClernand; he knew next to nothing of the operations, the movements, or the plans of either; he had not the least idea when the expedition would be ready to move from Memphis; he was even uncertain who the commander of the Northern column was to be. On their part, not only were Grant, the department commander; McClernand, the designated commander of the Vicksburg expedition; and Sherman, its actual commander, alike ignorant of every thing pertaining to the movements of the column from the Gulf, but, at the most critical period of the campaign, not one of the three was in communication with either of the others. Under these conditions, all concert between the co-operating forces was rendered impossible from the start, and the expectations of the government that Banks would go against Vicksburg immediately on landing in Louisiana were doomed to sharp and sudden, yet inevitable, disappointment.

Grant, believing himself free to dispose of McClernand's new levies, had projected a combined movement by his own forces, marching by Grand Junction, and Sherman's, moving by water from Memphis, on the front and rear of Vicksburg.

Sherman set out from Memphis on the 20th of December in complete ignorance of Halleck's telegram of the 18th, conveying the President's positive order that McClernand was to command the expedition. Forrest cut the wires on the morning of the 19th just in time to intercept this telegram, as well as its counterpart, addressed to McClernand at Springfield, Illinois. On the 29th of December, Sherman met with the bloody repulse of Chickasaw Bluffs. On the 2d of January he returned to the mouth of the Yazoo, and there found McClernand armed with the bowstring and the baton.

Where was Grant? While his main body was still at Oxford, in march to the Yallabusha, Forrest, the ubiquitous, irrepressible Forrest, struck his line of communications, and, on the 20th of December, at the instant when Sherman was giving the signal to get under way from Memphis, Van Dorn was receiving the surrender of Holly Springs and the keys of Grant's depots. There seemed nothing for it but to fall back on Memphis or starve. Of this state of affairs Grant sent word to Sherman on the 20th. Eleven days later the despatch was telegraphed to Sherman by McClernand; nor was it until the 8th of January that Grant, at Holly Springs, learned from Washington the bad news from Sherman, then ten days old. As if to complete a very cat's-cradle of cross-purposes, Washington had heard of it only through the Richmond newspapers.

The collapse of the northern column, coupled with the Confederate occupation of Port Hudson, had completely changed the nature of the problem confided to Banks for solution. If he was to execute the letter of his instructions at all, he had now to choose between three courses, each involving an impossibility: to carry by assault a strong line of works, three miles long, defended by 16,000 good troops; to lay siege to the place, with the certainty that it would be relieved from Mississippi, and with the reasonable prospect of losing at least his siege train in the venture; to leave Port Hudson in his rear and go against Vicksburg, upon the supposition, in the last degree improbable, that he might find Grant, or McClernand, or Sherman there to meet him and furnish him with food and ammunition. This last alternative appears to have been the one towards which the government leaned, as far as its intentions can be gathered, yet Banks could only have accepted it by sacrificing his communications, putting New Orleans in imminent peril, and creating irreparable and almost inevitable disaster as a price of a remote chance of achieving a great success. In point of fact, in the early days of January, McClernand, accompanied by Sherman as a corps commander, was moving toward the White River and the brilliant adventure of Arkansas Post. After capturing this place on the 11th, McClernand meant to go straight to Little Rock, but Grant rose to the occasion and peremptorily recalled the troops to Milliken's Bend. "This wild-goose chase," as Grant not inaptly termed it, cost McClernand his new-fledged honors as commander of "The Army of the Mississippi," and brought him to Sherman's side as a commander of one of his own corps; a bitter draught of the same medicine he had so recently administered to Sherman.

Had Banks marched against Vicksburg at the same time that McClernand was moving on Little Rock, with Grant cut off somewhere in northern Mississippi, the Confederate commanders must have been dull and slow indeed had they failed to seize with promptitude so rare an opportunity for resuming, at a sweep, the complete mastery of the river, ruining their adversary's campaign, and eliminating 100,000 of his soldiers.

Thus, almost at the first step, the two great expeditions were brought to a standstill. They could neither act together nor advance separately. The generals began to look about them for a new way.

CHAPTER VII. MORE WAYS THAN ONE.

Since Port Hudson could neither be successfully attacked nor safely disregarded, the problem now presented to Banks was to find a way around the obstacle without sacrificing or putting in peril his communications. The Atchafalaya was the key to the puzzle, and to that quarter attention was early directed, yet for a long time the difficulties encountered in finding a way to the Atchafalaya seemed well-nigh insuperable. The rising waters were expected to render the largest of the bayous that connect the Atchafalaya and the Mississippi navigable for steamboats of small size and light draught. Of these there were, indeed, but few, so that the work of transporting troops from the one line to the other must have been, at the best, slow and tedious, yet, once accomplished, the army would have found itself, with the help of the navy, above and beyond Port Hudson, with a sufficient line of communications open to the rear, and the Mississippi and the Red River closed against the enemy.

The Confederates had in Western Louisiana, near the mouth of the Teche, a small division of Taylor's troops, about 4,500 strong, with one gunboat. At first Banks thought to leave a brigade, with two or three light-draught gunboats, on Berwick Bay to observe Taylor's force, and then to disregard it as a factor in the subsequent movements. This, while the Atchafalaya was high and the eastern lowlands of the Attakapas widely overflowed, might have been safely done, but all these plans were destined to be essentially modified by a series of unexpected events in widely different quarters.

In the second week of January, Weitzel heard that Taylor meditated an attack on the outlying force at Berwick Bay, and that with this view the armament of the gunboat Cotton was being largely augmented. Weitzel resolved to strike the first blow. For this purpose he concentrated his whole force of seven regiments, including four of his own brigade, besides the 21st Indiana, 6th Michigan, and 23d Connecticut, with Carruth's and Thompson's batteries, four pieces of Bainbridge's battery, Barrett's Troop B of the Louisiana cavalry, and Company B of the 8th New Hampshire, commanded by Lieutenant Charles H. Camp. The 1st Louisiana held Donaldsonville and the 114th New York guarded the railway. To open the way, as well as to meet the fire of the Cotton, there were four gunboats of the light-draught flotilla under Buchanan—the flagship Calhoun, Estrella, Kinsman, and Diana.

At three o'clock on the morning of the 13th of January the crossing of Berwick Bay began; by half-past ten the gunboats had completed the ferriage of the cavalry and artillery; the infantry following landed at Pattersonville; then the whole force formed in line and, moving forward in the afternoon to the junction of the Teche with the Atchafalaya, went into bivouac. The next morning began the ascent of the Teche. The 8th Vermont was thrown over to the east or left bank of the bayou, while the main line moved forward on the west bank to attack the Cotton, now in plain sight. The gunboats led the movement, necessarily in line ahead, owing to the narrowness of the bayou. On either bank Weitzel's line of battle, with skirmishers thrown well forward, was preceded by sixty volunteers from the 8th Vermont and the same number from the 75th New York, whose orders were to move directly up to the Cotton and pick off her gunners. The line of battle moved forward steadily with the column of gunboats. Between the Union gunboats and the Cotton the bayou had been obstructed so as to prevent any hostile vessel from ascending the stream beyond that point. A brisk fight followed. Under cover of the guns of the navy and of the raking and broadside fire of the batteries, the 8th Vermont and 75th New York first drove off the land supports and then moving swiftly on the Cotton silenced her. In this advance the Vermonters captured one lieutenant and forty-one men. The Cotton retreated out of range. That night her crew applied the match and let her swing across the bayou to serve as an additional obstruction. In a few moments she was completely destroyed.

Then, having thus easily gained his object, Weitzel returned to La Fourche. His losses in the movement were 1 officer and 5 men killed, and 2 officers and 25 men wounded. Lieutenant James E. Whiteside, of the 75th New York, who had volunteered to lead the sharpshooters on the right bank, was killed close to the Cotton, in the act of ordering the crew to haul down her flag. Among the killed, also, was the gallant Buchanan—a serious loss, not less to the army than to the navy.

During a lull in the naval operations above Vicksburg, occasioned by the want of coal, eleven steamboats that had been in use by the Confederates on the Mississippi between Vicksburg and Port Hudson, took advantage of Porter's absence to slip up the Yazoo for supplies. There Porter's return caught them as in a trap.

Toward the end of January Grant landed on the long neck opposite Vicksburg, and once more set to work on the canal. Porter now determined to let a detachment of his fleet run the gauntlet of the batteries of Vicksburg for the purpose of destroying every thing the Confederates had afloat below the town. The ran Queen of the West, Colonel Charles R. Ellet, protected by two tiers of cotton bales, was told off to lead the adventure. On the 2d of February she performed the feat; then passing on down the river, on the 3d, ran fifteen miles below the mouth of the Red River, and the same distance up that stream, took and burned three Confederate supply steamboats, and got safely back to Vicksburg on the 5th. Porter was naturally jubilant, for, as it seemed, the mastery of the great river had been the swift reward of his enterprise.

A week later Ellet again ran down the Mississippi and up the Red, burning and destroying until, pushing his success too far, he found himself under the guns of Fort De Russy. A few shots sufficed to disable the Queen of the West, which fell into the hands of the Confederates, while Ellet and his men escaped in one of their captures.

Below Natchez they met the Indianola coming down the river, after safely passing Vicksburg. On the 24th the Confederate gunboat Webb, and the ram Queen of the West, now also flying the Confederate colors, came after the Indianola, attacked her off Palmyra Island, and sank her. Thus, as suddenly as it had gone from them, the control of the long reach of the Mississippi once more passed over to the Confederates.

At this news Farragut took fire. Between him and the impudent little Confederate flotilla, whose easy triumph had suddenly laid low the hopes and plans of his brother admiral, there stood nothing save the guns of Port Hudson. These batteries he would pass, and for the fourth time, yet not the last, would look the miles of Confederate cannon in the mouth. Banks, whose movements were retarded and to some extent held in abeyance, from the causes already mentioned, promptly fell in with the Admiral's plans, and both commanders conferring freely, the details were soon arranged.

CHAPTER VIII. FARRAGUT PASSES PORT HUDSON.

While Farragut was putting his fleet in thorough order for this adventure, looking after all needful arrangements with minute personal care, Banks concentrated all his disposable force at Baton Rouge. By the 7th of March, leaving T. W. Sherman to cover New Orleans and Weitzel to hold strongly La Fourche, Banks had a marching column, composed of Augur's, Emory's, and Grover's divisions, 15,000 strong. On the 9th of March tents were struck, to be pitched no more for five hard months, and the next morning the troops were ready, but repairs delayed the fleet, the last vessels of which did not reach Baton Rouge until about the 12th. On that day, for the first time, Banks reviewed his army, on the old battle-ground, in the presence of the admiral, his staff, and many officers of the fleet. The new regiments, with some exceptions, showed plainly the progress already attained under the energetic training and constant work of their officers. The degree of instruction and care then apparent forecast the value of their actual service. The 38th Massachusetts and 116th New York were specially commended in orders.

To hold Baton Rouge about 3,000 men were detached, under Chickering, including the 41st Massachusetts, 173d New York, 175th New York, 1st Indiana heavy artillery, 3d Louisiana native guards, Mack's battery, and Troop F of the Rhode Island cavalry.

All arrangements being concerted for the passage of the batteries on the evening of the 14th of March, Grover set out on the afternoon of the 13th, followed, at daybreak the next morning, by Emory, with Augur bringing up the rear. In the afternoon Grover went into camp, covering the intersection of the Bayou Sara road and the road that leads from it toward the river. Emory formed on his left, covering the branches of this road that lead to Springfield Landing and to Ross Landing, his main body supporting the centre at Alexander's plantation. Augur, on the right, held the cross-road that leads from the Bayou Sara road by Alexander's to the Clinton road at Vallandigham's. At two o'clock in the afternoon the signal officers opened communication from Springfield Landing with the fleet at anchor near the head of Prophet Island, and a strong detachment was posted near the landing to maintain the connection.

As the Confederates were known to have a force of about 1,200 cavalry somewhere between Clinton and Baton Rouge, strong detachments became necessary to observe all the approaches and to hold the roads and bridges in the rear in order to secure the withdrawal of the army when the demonstration should be completed, as well as to guard the operation from being inopportunely interrupted. These dispositions reduced the force for battle to about 12,000.

It had been intended to concentrate nearly all the artillery near the river in the vicinity of Ross Landing in such a manner as to engage, or at least divide, the attention of the lower batteries of Port Hudson; but the maps were even more imperfect than usual, and when a reconnoissance, naturally retarded by the enemy's advance guard, showed that the road by which the guns were to have gone into position did not exist, the daylight was already waning. A broken bridge also caused some delay.

At five o'clock in the afternoon Banks received a despatch from Farragut announcing an important change in the hour fixed for the movement of the fleet. Instead of making the attempt "in the gray of the morning," as had been the admiral's first plan, he now meant to get under way at eight o'clock in the evening. When darkness fell, therefore, it found the troops substantially in the positions already described, yet with their outposts well thrown forward.

About ten o'clock the fleet weighed anchor and moved up the river. The flagship Hartford took the lead, with the Albatross lashed to her port side, next the Richmond with the Genesee, the Monongahela with the Kineo, and last the side-wheeler Mississippi alone. The Essex and Sachem remained at anchor below, with the mortar boats, to cover the advance. An hour later a rocket shot up from the bluff and instantly the Confederate batteries opened fire. They were soon joined by long lines of sharpshooters. To avoid the shoal that makes out widely from the western bank, as well as to escape the worst of the enemy's fire, both of musketry and artillery, the ships hugged closely the eastern bluff; so closely, indeed, that the yards brushed the leaves from the overhanging trees and the voices of men on shore could be distinctly heard by those on board. Watch-fires were lighted by the Confederates to show as well the ships as the range; yet this did more harm than good, since the smoke united with that of the guns ashore and afloat to render the fleet invisible. On the other hand, the pilots were soon unable to see.

The Hartford, meeting the swift eddy at the bend, where the current describes nearly a right angle, narrowly escaped being driven ashore. The Richmond, following, was disabled by a shot through her engine-room when abreast of the upper battery at the turn. The Monongahela's consort, the Kineo, lost the use of her rudder, and the Monongahela herself ran aground on the spit; presently the Kineo, drifting clear, also grounded, but was soon afloat again, and, with her assistance, the Monongahela too swung free, after nearly a half hour of imminent peril. Then the Kineo, cast loose by her consort, drifted helplessly down the stream, while the Monongahela passed up until a heated bearing brought her engines to a stop and she too drifted with the current.

Last of the fleet, the Mississippi, unseen in the smoke, and therefore safe enough from the Confederate guns, yet equally unable to see either friend, foe, or landmark, was carried by the current hard on the spit; then, after a half hour of ineffectual exertion, lying alone and helpless under the concentrated aim of the Confederate batteries, she was abandoned and set on fire by her captain. About three in the morning, becoming lighter, as the fire did its work, she floated free and drifted down the stream one mass of flames, in plain view, not merely of the fleet, but also of the army, condemned to stand to arms in sight and sound of the distant battle and now to look on idly as, with a mighty flash and roar, the Mississippi cast to the heavens her blazing timbers, amid a myriad of bursting shells, in one mountain of flame: then black silence.

Thus, when at last the gray of the morning came, the Hartford and Albatross rode in safety above Port Hudson, while the Richmond, Monongahela, Genesee, and Kineo, all battered and more or less injured, lay at anchor once more near Prophet Island, and the Mississippi had perished in a blaze of glory.

Narrowly escaping the total failure of his plans and the destruction of his fleet, Farragut had so far succeeded in his objects that henceforth the Confederates practically lost the control of the Mississippi above Port Hudson, as well as the use of the Red River as their base of supplies. Save in skiff-loads, beef, corn, and salt could no longer be safely carried across the Mississippi, and the high road from Galveston and Matamoras was closed against the valuable and sorely needed cargoes brought from Europe by the blockade runners.

As for the army, it had gained some facility of movement, some knowledge of its deficiencies, and some information of great future value as to the topography of the unknown country about Port Hudson; more than this could hardly have been expected. Indeed, the sole object of the presence of the army was defeated by the movement of the fleet so many hours before the time agreed upon. This object was to make a diversion that might attract the enemy's attention and thus tend to reduce the fire of musketry on the exposed decks of the fleet, and to draw off or hold off the fire of the field-pieces that might otherwise be massed on the river front. The disparity between the relative strength of Banks's army and that of the garrison was too well known to justify the thought of an actual attack upon the works.

Such, however, was not the opinion of the government, which to the last seems to have taken for granted that all that was needed to insure the surrender of Port Hudson was a desire to attack it. Even after the surrender, Halleck, in his annual report for 1863, speaking of the position of affairs in March, said: "Had our land forces invested Port Hudson at this time, it could have been easily reduced, as its garrison was weak . . . but the strength of the place was not then known." In truth, the place was never so strong, before or after, as at this time; nor is it often in war that the information tallies so nearly with the fact. The effective strength of the garrison was more than 16,000. Gardner's monthly report accounts for 1,366 officers and 14,921 men present for duty, together 16,287 out of a total present of 20,388. Besides the twenty-two heavy guns in position, he had thirteen light batteries.

Morning found the army alone and in a bad position, either for attack or defence. Nothing was to be gained by staying there, and much was to be risked. As soon, therefore, as word came through the ever-active and adventurous signal-officers that all was well with what remained of the fleet, Banks once more took up the line of march for Baton Rouge, and went into bivouac in great discomfort on the soggy borders of the Bayou Montesanto, about eight miles north of the town.

Meanwhile, what had become of Farragut? The last seen of the Hartford and Albatross was on the morning of the 15th by the signal officers at Springfield Landing. The two vessels then lay at anchor beyond the bend above Port Hudson. Several attempts were made to communicate with the Admiral across the intervening neck of lowland. The first was on the 16th, by Parmele, with the 174th New York and a squadron of the 2d Rhode Island cavalry. Next, on the 18th, Banks, eager to advance the effort, took Dudley's brigade, two sections of Rails's battery, and Magen's troop, and joined Parmele. But for a time these efforts accomplished nothing, since it was impossible to see far over the flat and wooded country; and the Confederates having cut the great levee at Morganza, the whole neighborhood was under water and the bridges gone. Finally, on the 19th, Colonel Charles J. Paine went out with the 2d Louisiana, the 174th New York, and a small squad of cavalry, and leaving first the infantry and then most of the troopers behind, and riding on almost alone, succeeded in crossing the bend and gained the levee at the head of the old channel known as Fausse River, about three miles above Port Hudson. There he had a good view of the river, yet nothing was to be seen of the Hartford and Albatross. Again, on the 24th, Dudley sent Magen with his troop to Hermitage Landing. Pushing on with a few men, Magen got a full view of the reach above Waterloo for five miles, but he too learned nothing of the fleet. Farragut had in fact gone up the river on the 15th, after vainly attempting to exchange signals with his ships below and with the army, and was now near Vicksburg in communication with Admiral Porter, engaged in concerting plans for the future. Before getting under way he had caused three guns to be fired from the Hartford. This was the signal agreed upon with Banks, but for some reason it was either not heard or not reported.

Just before separating at Baton Rouge, Banks had handed to Farragut a letter addressed to Grant, to be delivered by the Admiral in the event of success. This letter, the first direct communication between the two generals, Grant received on the 20th of March, and from it derived his first information of the actual state of affairs in the Department of the Gulf. After stating his position and force Banks wound up by saying: "Should the Admiral succeed in his attempt, I shall try to open communication with him on the other side of the river, and, in that event, trust I shall hear from you as to your position and movements, and especially as to your views as to the most efficient mode of co-operation upon the part of the forces we respectively command."

With the Hartford and Albatross controlling the reach between Port Hudson and Vicksburg, as well as the mouth of the Red River and the head of the Atchafalaya, Banks might now safely disregard the movements of the Confederate gunboats. Accordingly, while waiting for Grant's answer, he turned to the execution of his former plan.

CHAPTER IX. THE TECHE.

In effect, this plan was to turn Port Hudson by way of the Atchafalaya. For the original conception, the credit must be given to Weitzel, who seems indeed to have formed a very similar scheme when he first occupied La Fourche. However, his force was, at that time, barely sufficient for the defence of the territory confided to his care. Not only was there then no particular object in moving beyond the Atchafalaya, but any advance in that direction would have exposed his little corps to disaster on account of the great facilities afforded by the numberless streams for a movement by detachments of the enemy into his rear. It was largely to prepare for an advance into Western Louisiana, as well as to defend his occupancy of La Fourche, that Butler, upon Weitzel's suggestion, had created the gunboat flotilla.

Soon after Banks took the command, Weitzel, who had opinions and the courage to enforce them, laid his ideas before his new chief. On the 18th of January, disturbed by hearing that Admiral Farragut meant to take one of the army gunboats, recently transferred to the navy, away from Berwick Bay, instead of sending more, Weitzel expressed himself strongly in a despatch to headquarters.

"With such a naval force in that bay, in co-operation with a suitable land force, the only true campaign in this section could be made. Look at the map. Berwick Bay leads into Grand Lake, Grand Lake into the Atchafalaya, the Atchafalaya into Red River. Boats drawing not more than four or five feet and in the force I mention [10 or 12], with a proper land force, could clear out the Atchafalaya, Red River, and Black River. All communications from Vicksburg and Port Hudson cross this line indicated by me. By taking it in the manner I propose, Vicksburg and Port Hudson would be a cipher to the rebels. It would be a campaign that 100,000 men could not so easily fight, and so successfully. It is an operation to which the taking of Galveston Island is a cipher and the capture of the Mobile Bay forts a nonentity."

With these views Banks was himself in accord, yet not in their entirety. The pressure of time led him to desire to avoid divergences into the Teche country. If it were possible, he wished to gain the Atchafalaya by some route at once speedier and more direct. While the explorations were in progress to discover such a route, Weitzel once more took occasion to urge his original plan. On the 15th of February, he wrote to Augur, his division commander:

"I feel it a duty which I owe you and my country to address you at this late hour in the night on the present proposed movement on Butte a la Rose and the Teche country. . . . In all honesty and candor, I do not believe the present plan to be a proper one. . . . Sibley's Texas brigade is somewhere in the Opelousas country. . . . Mouton's main body is in rear of intrenchments on Madame Meade's plantation, six miles below Centreville. If we defeat these two commands we form a junction with our forces near Vicksburg. By pursuing our success to Alexandria, we may capture General Mouton's force, and with little loss, unless it form a junction with Sibley. If it forms a junction, we will meet them near Iberia and engage them in open field, and with a proper force can defeat them. General Emory's whole division (moved to Brashear City) and my brigade can do this work. Let the light transportation, now with General Emory, and all destined for and collected by me be collected at Brashear City. Let two of the brigades be moved to and landed at Indian Bend, while the other two are crossed and attack in front. If Mouton escapes (which I think, if properly conducted, will be doubtful) we form a junction at Indian Bend. We proceed to attack and with much superior force, because I do not believe Mouton and Sibley united will exceed 6,000 men. We can defeat them, pursue our success to Alexandria and of course get Butte a la Rose; our gunboats to facilitate its fall, attacking it as they cannot accompany us farther up than Saint Martinville. I believe this to be the true and only correct plan of the campaign."

These views were unquestionably sound; they were such as might have been expected of an officer of Weitzel's skill and experience and special knowledge of the theatre of operations. Supported by the strong current of events, they were now to be carried into effect.

At the date of this despatch, Emory's division had been for several weeks near the head of the Bayou Plaquemine, with headquarters at Indian Village, endeavoring to find or force a waterway to the Atchafalaya, while Weitzel was holding his brigade in readiness to co-operate by a simultaneous movement against Taylor on the Teche. Many attempts were made by Emory to carry out the object confided to him, yet all proved failures. Bayou Sorrel, Lake Chicot, Grand River, and the Plaquemine itself, from both ends of the stream, were thoroughly explored, but only to find the bayous choked with driftwood impossible to remove, and until removed rendering the streams impassable. Two of these drifts in Bayou Sorrel were carefully examined by Captain Henry Cochen, of the 173d New York. The first he reported to be about a mile in length, "composed of one mass of logs, roots, big and small trees, etc., jammed tightly for thirty feet, the whole length of my pole." The second drift, just beyond, was found nearly as bad, and farther on lay another even worse. Moreover, a thorough reconnoissance showed the whole country, between the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya above the Plaquemine, to be impracticable at that season for all arms. After more than a month of this sort of work, Emory was called across the river to Baton Rouge to take part in the events narrated in the last chapter.

Banks returned to New Orleans on the 24th of March, and the next day ordered Grover to embark and move down the river to Donaldsonville, and thence march down the Bayou La Fourche to Thibodeaux. At the same time Emory was ordered, as soon as Grover's river transports should be released, to embark his command for Algiers, and thence move by the railway to Brashear. Meanwhile, on the 18th of March, Weitzel learned of the presence of the Queen of the West and Webb in the Atchafalaya, and as this seemed to indicate an intention to attack him, and the navy had no more light-draught gunboats to spare for his further security, to avoid having his hand forced and the game spoiled, he discreetly fell back on the 21st to the railway bridge over Bayou Boeuf, and took up a position where he was not exposed, as at Brashear, to the risk of being cut off by any sudden movement of the enemy.

On the 28th of March the Diana was sent to reconnoitre the Confederate position and strength on the lower Teche; but continuing on down the Atchafalaya, instead of returning by Grand Lake as intended, and thus running into the arms of the enemy, she fell an easy prey. The Calhoun went to her relief, but ran aground, and the Estrella had to go to the assistance of the Calhoun. Acting-Master James L. Peterson, commanding the Diana, was killed, and Lieutenant Pickering D. Allen, aide-de-camp to General Weitzel, was wounded. With the Diana there fell into the enemy's hands nearly one hundred and fifty prisoners. This gave the Confederates three rather formidable boats in the Atchafalaya and the Teche.

The movement of the troops was necessarily slow, as well by reason of the extremely limited facilities for transportation, as because of the state of the roads, but by the 8th of April every thing was well advanced, and on that day Banks moved his headquarters to Brashear. Weitzel, who had been reinforced by the siege-train, manned by the 1st Indiana heavy artillery, had already re-occupied his former front on Berwick Bay. Emory was in bivouac at Bayou Ramos, about five miles in the rear of Weitzel, and Grover at Bayou Boeuf, about four miles behind Emory. Thus the whole movement was almost completely masked from the Confederates, who from their side of the bay saw only Weitzel, and knew little or nothing of the gathering forces in his rear. So little, indeed, that Taylor, with his usual enterprise, seems to have thought this a favorable moment for attempting upon Weitzel the same operation that Weitzel had been so long meditating for the discomfiture of Taylor.

Emory marched early in the morning of the 9th of April and closed up on Weitzel, who, an hour later, about ten o'clock, began to cross. No enemy was seen save a small outpost, engaged in observing the movement. This detachment retired before Weitzel's advance, without coming to blows. Weitzel at once sent his Assistant Adjutant-General, Captain John B. Hubbard, with Perkins's and Williamson's troops of cavalry and one section of Bainbridge's battery to discover the enemy's position. The Confederates were found to be in some force in front of Pattersonville, with their cavalry pickets advanced to within a mile of Weitzel's front.

As soon as Weitzel had completed his crossing, and released the boats, Emory followed him. The four brigades bivouacked in front of the landing-place that night. The gunboats, having done the greater share of the ferriage, went back to the east bank for Grover.

Grover, who had marched from Bayou Boeuf at nine o'clock, just as Emory was arriving at Brashear, came there, in his turn, early in the afternoon. The plan had been that Grover should embark immediately, and, having his whole force on board by an early hour in the night, the boats should set out at daylight, so as to place Grover by nine o'clock on the morning of the 11th in position for the work cut out for him. With few pilots, and the shores unlighted, it was out of the question to attempt the navigation of the waters of the Grand Lake during the night. However, it was not until the night of the 11th that Grover was able to complete the embarkation of his division. To understand this it is necessary to observe that Emory and Weitzel, in making the passage of Berwick Bay, were merely crossing a short ferry, so that the boats engaged in the transfer could be loaded rapidly to almost any extent, so long as they remained afloat, and being unloaded with equal facility, were in a few minutes ready to repeat the operation. In Grover's case, however, the infantry, artillery, cavalry, and stores had all to be taken care of at once, with every provision for fighting a battle. For this the artillery was considered indispensable, and it was not without great trouble and long delay that the guns and horses were got afloat. Fate seemed to be against Grover, for after all had been accomplished by the greatest exertion on his part, as well as on the part of his officers and the corps quartermasters, a fog set in so dense that the pilots were unable to see their way. This continued until nine o'clock on the morning of the 12th; then at last the movement began.

About noon, on the 11th of April, Weitzel, leading the advance of the main column, moved forward. At once his skirmishers felt the skirmishers of the enemy, who retired slowly, without attempting any serious opposition. In the evening, Weitzel rested in line of battle a short distance above Pattersonville. Emory followed closely, and went into bivouac on Weitzel's left. The march had not been begun earlier, and the enemy was not pressed, because it was desired to keep him amused until Grover should have gained his rear, and Grover had not yet started.

After the early morning of Sunday, the 12th of April, had been spent in light skirmishing and in demonstrations of the cavalry, designed to observe the enemy, and at the same time to attract and hold his attention, word came that Grover was under way. Banks knew that the passing fleet must soon be in plain sight of the Confederates. Therefore, it was now necessary to move promptly, and to feel the enemy strongly, yet not too strongly, lest he should abandon his position too soon and suddenly spoil all. From this moment it is important to remember that, save in the event of complete success, no word could come from Grover for nearly two days. The first news from him was expected to be the sound of his guns in the enemy's rear.

At eleven o'clock the bugle again sounded the advance. The whole line moved forward, continually skirmishing, until, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the infantry came under fire of the Confederate guns in position on the lines known as Camp Bisland. The line of march led up the right bank of the Atchafalaya until the mouth of the Teche was reached, thence up the Teche, partly astride the stream, yet mainly by the right bank. At first Weitzel formed on the right, Emory on the left, but as the great bend of the Teche was reached, about four miles below Bisland, and by the nature of the ground the front became narrowed at the same time that in following the change of direction of the bayou the line was brought to a wheel, Weitzel took ground to the left in two lines, while Emory advanced Paine's brigade into the front line on Weitzel's right, placed Ingraham in his second line, and made a third line with Godfrey.

Then finding the enemy beyond the Teche too strong for the cavalry to manage single-handed, Banks called on Emory to reinforce the right bank. Emory sent Bryan across with the 175th New York and a section of the 1st Maine battery, commanded by Lieutenant Eben D. Haley. They were to push the enemy back, and to conform to the advance of the main line.

The day was hot, the air close, and the march over the fields of young cane, across or aslant the heavy furrows and into and over the deep ditches, was trying to the men, as yet but little accustomed to marches. Fortunately, however, there was no need of pressing the advance until Grover's guns should be heard. About half-past five in the afternoon a brisk artillery fire began, and was kept up until night fell; then Emory moved the 4th Wisconsin forward to hold a grove in front of a sugar-house, near the bayou, well in advance of his right, in order to prevent the Confederates from occupying it, to the annoyance of the whole line.

After dark all the pickets were thrown well forward in touch with those of the enemy, but the main lines were drawn back out of range, for the sake of a good night's sleep before a hard day's work.

CHAPTER X. BISLAND.

The works behind which the Confederates now stood to battle were named Camp Bisland or Fort Bisland, in honor of the planter whose fields were thus given over to war. The defences consisted of little more than a line of simple breastworks, of rather low relief, thrown completely across the neck of dry land on either bank of the Teche, the flanks resting securely on the swamps that border Grand Lake on the left and on the right extend to the Gulf. The position was well chosen, for five miles below Centreville, where the plantation of Mrs. Meade adjoins the Bethel Place, the neck is at its narrowest. The Teche, passing a little to the left of the centre of the works, enabled the guns of the Diana, moving freely around the bends, to contribute to the defence, while the obstructions placed below the works hindered the ascent of the bayou by the Union gunboats. The Confederate right was also somewhat strengthened by the embankment of the unfinished railroad to Opelousas. On the other hand, from the nature of the ground, low and flat as it was, the works were in part rather commanded than commanding; yet the difference of level was inconsiderable, and for a force as small as Taylor's, outnumbered as his was, any slight disadvantage in this way was more than compensated by the shortness of the line.

Along the banks of the bayou were a few live oaks; on either flank the swamp was densely wooded, mainly with cypress, cottonwood, and willow, with an outlying and almost impenetrable canebrake, while between the attacking columns and the Confederate position, on either bank of the bayou, stretched a field where the young shoots of the sugar-cane stood knee-high. This was crossed at right angles with the bayou, by many of those wide and deep ditches by which the planters of Louisiana are accustomed to drain their tilled lowlands.

Such was the scene of the action now about to be fought, known to the Union army as the battle of Bisland or Fort Bisland; to the Confederates, as the battle of Bethel Place or Bayou Teche.

During the whole of the night of the 12th a dense fog prevailed, but this lifting about eight o'clock on the morning of Monday, the 13th of April, disclosed a day as bright and beautiful as the scene was fair. At an early hour the whole line advanced to within short musketry range, in substantially the same order as on the previous day. An attack by a detachment of Confederate cavalry upon the skirmishers of the 4th Wisconsin, in advance of the sugar-house, was easily thrown off, and a later demonstration by the Confederate infantry upon Paine's position in the grove shared the same fortune. Emory moved first the 8th New Hampshire, and afterwards the 133d and 173d New York, to the support of the 4th Wisconsin. At the same time Banks ordered Emory to send the other four regiments of Gooding's brigade and the two remaining sections of the 1st Maine battery to reinforce Bryan with the 175th New York on the left bank of the Teche, in order to be prepared, not only to meet a flank movement of the Confederates from that direction, but also to carry to works on that side, should this be thought best. After these dispositions had been completed the advance was steady and continuous, yet not rapid, until toward noon the last of the Confederates retired behind their breastworks and opened fire with musketry. The ditches already spoken of hindered the progress of the Union artillery, yet not seriously, while they afforded an excellent protection for the supports of the batteries and enabled the lines of infantry to rest at intervals: no small gain, for the sun grew very hot, and the march over the heavy windrows and across the deep ditches was exhausting.

The Confederate gunboat Diana took position well in front of the works, so as to command completely the right flank of Emory and Weitzel as they approached by a fire that, had it not been checked, must have enfiladed the whole line. Just as this fire was beginning to be disturbing it was silenced by a fortunate shot from one of the two 30-pounder Parrott guns, served by the 1st Indiana, posted in rear of Weitzel's left and trained upon the Diana, under the personal supervision of Arnold. The third shot from this battery, aimed at the flash of the Diana's guns, exploded in her engine room; then above the trees, whose leafage full and low hid the vessel, was seen a flash like a puff of vapor; a rousing cheer was heard from the sharpshooters of the 4th Wisconsin and 8th New Hampshire, who had been told off to keep down the fire of the gunboat; and the Diana was seen to pass up the bayou and out of the fight.

All risk of an enfilade file being thus removed, the whole Union line quickly closed with the Confederates, and the engagement became general with artillery and musketry. On both sides of the bayou the firing was brisk, at times even severe. Save where the view was broken here and there by the trees or became lightly clouded by the smoke of battle, the whole field lay in plain sight. As the course of the Teche in ascending turned toward the left, Gooding, on the east bank, had the wheeling flank, while Weitzel formed the pivot.

Gooding went forward in gallant style, his men quickening their pace at times to a run, in order to keep the alignment with the main body on the west bank. Perceiving on his extreme right, toward the lake, a fine grove or copse, Gooding threw out Sharpe with the 156th New York to examine the wood with a view of attempting to turn the left flank of the Confederate lines. These, as it proved, did not extend beyond the grove, but there ended in an unfinished redoubt. Indeed, nearly the whole of the Confederate works on the east side of the bayou, although laid out long since, had been but recently and hastily thrown up, after it became known to Taylor that Banks was crossing to attack him. In the wood, about five hundred yards in advance of the breastworks, Mouton had posted Bagby's 3d Texas regiment. The Texans held their ground so stiffly that Gooding found it necessary to send his own regiment, the 31st Massachusetts, to the support of Sharpe. Mouton supported Bagby with the left wing of the 18th Louisiana and part of Fournet's and Waller's battalions. Gooding's men carried the rifle-pits in the wood by a spirited charge, in which they took two officers and eighty-four men prisoners. His main line in the open ground between the wood and the bayou was formed by the 38th Massachusetts, deployed as skirmishers, covering the front and followed, at a distance of about one hundred and fifty yards, by the 53d Massachusetts, in like order. Behind the 53d, two sections of the 1st Maine battery were posted to command two parallel plantation roads leading up the bayou, while the third section was held in reserve. After the 31st Massachusetts had gone to the support of the right, the main line here was composed of the 175th New York. Shortly after five o'clock the 53d Massachusetts relieved the 38th, which had expended its ammunition, and was falling back under orders to replenish. When this was done, the 38th once more advanced and formed in support of the skirmish line.

Meanwhile on the left of the Teche the main body moved forward in two lines of battalions deployed, Paine on the right and Weitzel on the left, while Ingraham, in column of companies, formed the reserve for both. Paine's first line on the right, nearest the bayou, was composed of the 4th Wisconsin and 8th New Hampshire, his second line of the 133d New York and the 173d New York. Mack's 20-pounders commanded the bayou road, and Duryea went into battery in advance of the centre, between Paine and Weitzel.

Weitzel's front line was composed of the 8th Vermont and 114th New York, with the 12th Connecticut, 160th New York, and 75th New York in the second line. The guns of Bainbridge and Carruth went into battery near the left flank, and working slowly kept down the fire of the Confederate artillery in their front. When the fire of musketry became hot, Weitzel sent the 75th New York to try to gain the canebrake on the left, in advance of the enemy's works, with a view of turning that flank. Of this movement Taylor says in his report that it was twice repulsed by the 5th Texas and Waller's battalion, under Green, and the 28th Louisiana, Colonel Gray, aided by the guns of Semmes's battery and the Valverde battery. However, the counter-movement on the part of the Confederates, being begun in plain view, was instantly seen, and Banks sent word to Weitzel to check it. With this object, Weitzel ordered the 114th New York to go to the support of the 75th. A brisk fight followed, without material advantage to either side. In truth, the canebrake formed an impenetrable obstacle to the combatants, who, when once they had passed within the outer edge of the tangle, were unable either to see or approach one another, although the struggle was plainly visible from the front of both armies.

The reserve of Parrott guns, manned by the 1st Indiana and composed of four 30-pounders and four 20-pounders, was posted under McMillan to cover the left flank and the broken centre where it was pierced by the bayou, as well as to watch for the return of the Diana to activity. Toward evening the remaining guns of the 1st Indiana, two 12-pounder rifles under Cox, after being posted in support of the centre, were sent to the left to assist Bainbridge and Carruth, whose ammunition was giving out.

Banks, after gaining advanced positions in contact with the enemy, forbore to press them hard because, as has been seen, his whole purpose was to hold the Confederates where they stood until he could hear of Grover or from Grover. As the day advanced without news or the long-expected sound of Grover's guns, Banks began to grow impatient and to fear that the adventure from which so much had been hoped had somehow miscarried. He therefore became even more anxious than before lest the Confederates should move off under cover of the coming night. Accordingly, during the afternoon, although it had been his previous purpose not to deliver an assault until certain that Grover held the Confederate line of retreat, Banks gave discretionary orders to Emory and Weitzel to form for an attack and move upon the Confederate works if a favorable opportunity should present itself. The exercise of this discretion in turn devolved upon the commanders of the front line, that is, upon Weitzel and Paine, for Gooding, being out of communication, except by signal, with the troops on the west bank, was occupied in conforming to their movements. Paine and Weitzel, after conferring, resolved to attack, and having made every preparation, only waited for the word from the commanding general.

The day was waning; it was already past four o'clock; and Banks was still somewhat anxiously weighing the approach of night and the cost of the assault against the chance of news from Grover, when suddenly, straight up the bayou, and high above the heads of Banks and his men, a 9-inch shell came hurtling, and as it was seen to burst over the lines of Bisland, from far in the rear broke the deep roar of the Clifton's bow-gun. Soon from below the obstructions that barred her progress came a messenger bearing the long-expected tidings of Grover. At last he was on land and in march toward his position. With a sense of relief Banks recalled the orders for the assault and drew his front line back out of fire of the Confederate musketry so that the men might rest. To relieve the exhausted skirmish line, the 4th Massachusetts and the 162d New York of Ingraham's brigade were sent forward from the reserve, leaving him only the 110th New York.

By dawn the next morning, at all events, Banks calculated, the turning column would be in place; accordingly during the night he gave orders to assault along the whole front as soon as it should be light enough to see.

However, shortly after midnight, sounds were heard on the picket line, indicating some unusual movement behind the Confederate works. When, at daybreak, the various skirmishers moved forward in eager rivalry, they found the Confederates gone. Captain Allaire, leading his company of the 133d New York, was the first to enter the works; the regiment itself and the 8th New Hampshire followed closely, and the colors of the 8th were the first to mount the parapet, where they were planted by Paine. On the left bank, this honor fell to the 53d Massachusetts. But in truth the surge was so nearly simultaneous that the whole line of entrenchments on both sides of the bayou, from right to left, was crossed almost at the same instant.

It was nine o'clock on Monday night when Taylor learned of Grover's movements and position, as narrated in the next chapter. Taylor at once began to move out of the lines of Bisland and to direct his attention to Grover in order to secure a retreat. Just before daylight Green, to whom, with his 5th Texas, Waller's battalion, and West's section of Semmes's battery, Taylor had given the more than usually delicate task of covering the rear, marched off the ground, leaving nothing behind save one 24-pounder siege gun and a disabled howitzer of Cornay's battery.

Without losing an instant the pursuit of the retreating Confederates was begun, Weitzel leading the way, and was conducted with vigor and with scarcely a halt, notwithstanding the energetic opposition of the Confederate rear-guard, until early in the afternoon, just beyond Franklin, Emory's advance guard, under Paine, following the bayou road, ran into Grover's under Dwight, approaching from the opposite direction. Weitzel, having entered Franklin without opposition, kept the left-hand or cut-off road until he came to the burnt bridge over the Choupique, by which, as will presently be seen, the Confederates had escaped.

Gooding, after occupying the works in his front, crossed the Teche by a bridge to the west bank and fell into Emory's column behind Ingraham. The Clifton, as soon as the obstructions could be removed, got under way and moved up the bayou abreast with the advance of the army.

The losses of the Nineteenth Army Corps in this its first battle were 3 officers and 37 men killed, 8 officers and 176 men wounded; in all 224. The 38th Massachusetts headed the list with 6 killed and 29 wounded, and Gooding's brigade, to which this regiment belonged, reported 87 casualties, or 38 per cent. of the whole. In the six light batteries 15 horses were killed and 12 wounded, and one caisson of the 1st Maine was upset and lost in crossing the Teche to go into action.

The losses of the Confederates have never been reported and no means are known to exist for estimating them.

The disparity of the forces engaged was more than enough to overcome the Confederate advantage of position, for Banks had 10,000 men with 38 guns, while Taylor reports but 4,000 men with four batteries, estimated at 24 or 25 guns. To these must be added the Diana, until disabled on Monday morning, and to the Union strength the Clifton, after she arrived and opened fire at long range on Monday afternoon.

At Bisland the new headquarters flags were for the first time carried under fire. These distinguishing colors, as prescribed in General Orders on the 18th of February, were guidons four feet square attached to a lance twelve feet long, made for convenience in two joints. In camp or garrison they served to indicate the quarters of the general commanding the corps, division, or brigade, while on the march they were borne near his person by a mounted orderly, commonly a trusty sergeant. The flag of the Nineteenth Army Corps was blue with a white four-pointed star in the middle, and on the star the figures 19 in red. From this the division flags differed only in having a red ground and the number of the division in black. The brigade flags had blue, white, and blue horizontal stripes of equal width, with the number of the brigade in black in the white stripe. Thenceforward these colors were borne through every engagement in which the corps took part. Not one of them was ever abandoned by its bearer or taken by the enemy.

CHAPTER XI. IRISH BEND.

Grover's instructions were to gain a landing on the shore of Grand Lake, and then marching on Franklin, to cut off Taylor's retreat or to attack him in the rear, as circumstances might suggest.

We have seen how, instead of being ready to move from Berwick Bay on the morning of the 10th of April, Grover found his departure delayed by the various causes already mentioned until the morning of the 12th was well advanced.

The flotilla, under Lieutenant-Commander Cooke, composed of the flag-ships Estrella, Arizona, Clifton, and Calhoun, having completed the ferriage of Emory and Weitzel over Berwick Bay, was now occupied in assisting the army transports to convey Grover to his destination, besides standing ready to protect his movement and his landing with its guns.

About noon, when off Cypress Island, the Arizona ran hard and fast aground, and four precious hours were lost in a vain attempt to get her afloat. If, in the light of after events, this may seem like time wasted, it should always be remembered that all four of the gunboats were crowded with troops, while an attack from the Queen of the West and her consorts was to be looked for at any moment. Finally, rather than to put the adventure in peril by a longer delay, Cooke determined to leave the Arizona to take care of herself, and once more steaming ahead, at half-past seven o'clock, the gunboats and transports came to anchor below Miller's Point, off Madame Porter's plantation. At this place, known as Oak Lawn, Grover in the orders under which he was acting had been told he might expect to find a good shell road leading straight to the Teche, and crossing the bayou about the middle of the bow called Irish Bend. Grover at once sent Fiske with two companies of the 1st Louisiana ashore in the Clifton's boats to reconnoitre. It was midnight when, after carefully examining the ground, Fiske returned to the gunboat and reported the road under water, and quite impracticable for all arms. The fleet then got under way, and proceeding about six miles farther up the lake, anchored beyond Magee's Point.

Before daylight Dwight sent two of his staff officers, Captain Denslow and Lieutenant Matthews, ashore, with a small detachment from the 6th New York, to examine the plantation road leading from this point to the Teche. The road being found practicable for all arms, the debarkation began at daybreak.

Dwight landed first. As soon as his leading regiment, the 1st Louisiana, reached the shore, Holcomb threw forward two companies, under Lieutenant-Colonel Fiske, as skirmishers, and formed the battalion in line to cover the landing.

Taylor, when he first learned that the gunboats and transports had passed up Grand Lake, had sent Vincent, with the 2d Louisiana cavalry and a section of Cornay's battery, to Verdun landing, about four miles behind Camp Bisland, to observe and oppose the movement. This was about noon on Sunday, the 12th. In the evening, hearing of the progress of the fleet, Taylor sent a second section of Cornay's battery to the lake, and going himself to Vincent ordered him to follow the movement and try to prevent a landing. The next morning Taylor sent Reily with the 4th Texas, to join Vincent and aid him in retarding Grover's progress.

Taylor seems to have censured Vincent for letting Grover land, yet in truth Vincent was not to blame. The line he had to watch was too long for his numbers, and the Union flotilla could and did move more rapidly on the lake than the Confederate troops by the roads. When he had stationed his pickets at the probable landing-places, and taken up a central position to support them, he had done all that lay in his power. The range and weight of the 9-inch shells of the navy were alone enough to put a serious opposition to the landing out of the question, but as soon as Vincent found where the attempt was to be made, he disposed his men and guns to retard it. Two of Cornay's guns even tried, ineffectually of course, to destroy the transports: Cooke quickly drove them off.

As Holcomb's skirmishers deployed they were met by a brisk fusillade from Vincent's men strongly posted in ambush behind a high fence in the thick wood that skirts the shore; but when Holcomb advanced his battalion Vincent's men fell back on their main body and left the wood to Holcomb, who immediately moved to the edge of the clearing and held it, observing the enemy on the farther border. This was Vincent with his regiment and the four guns of Corney; and from this moment all that was happening on the lake shore passed unseen by the Confederates.

Meanwhile the landing went on very slowly, for the transports could not come nearer to the beach than a hundred yards, and, although the foot-soldiers were able to jump overboard and scramble ashore, and the horses could also take to the water, it was necessary to make a bridge of flats for the guns and caissons of the artillery. Thus it was four o'clock in the afternoon before the whole division found itself assembled on the plantation of Duncan McWilliams on the shore of the lake, with the Teche at the upper reach of Irish Bend four miles to the southward, and Charenton in the hollow of Indian Bend lying but two miles toward the southwest. There were roads in either direction, but Irish Bend was the way to Franklin, and to Franklin Grover was under orders to go.

About nine o'clock in the morning Dwight had borrowed from Birge his two leading regiments, the 13th Connecticut and the 159th New York, to support the 1st Louisiana. Grover also gave Dwight Closson's battery and Barrett's troop of cavalry. Toward noon, moving a detachment by his left, Dwight seized the bridge that crosses the Teche in approaching Madame Porter's plantation from the northward, just in time to extinguish the flames that Vincent's men had lighted to destroy it. After seizing the bridge at Oak Lawn, Barrett galloped down the left bank of the Teche and seized the bridge a mile or two below, by which the same small plantation is reached from the eastward; probably by the shell road that Grover had been told to take, and at which he had tried to land. Barrett was in time to save the bridge from Vincent, and to hold the advantage thus gained Dwight soon sent Holcomb with the 1st Louisiana, 131st New York, 6th New York, 22d Maine, and Closson's battery.