To

Possession was taken on the morning of July 9th, when General Andrews, Banks' chief of staff, accompanied by the lion hearted Colonel Henry W. Birge, with his regiment of heroes as a guard of honor, entered the town to receive the sword. Two other regiments and two batteries followed, as a guard of occupancy. The Federal flag was first unfurled by the brave fellows of the fleet. Lieutenant Terry, of the Richmond, having, from the first, acted a prominent and most creditable part in the grand drama, with his own hands run up the stars and stripes.

The Captures.

more formidable foe than he who hammered away without their citadel. Hunger began to loom up in the near future. Day by day the supplies ran down, until the rations could be measured to a pound. Late in June the mules within the entrenchments were butchered and eaten. "Many of the men," said one within the fortress, "as if in mockery of famine, caught rats and ate them, declaring that rats were better than squirrels." which end the siege was made daily more vigilant, that no aid of any nature should be smuggled within. Certain kinds of ammunition also ran low, so that, as the days of July progressed, the defense became like the last shivers of the giant mortally stricken. Yet the breast works were vigilantly manned, and every attempt to gain a lodgement over the line was thwarted by the beleaguered host, whose hope of rescue had died out with the month of June. Johns on's failure to attack Banks made the duration of the siege a matter of hours rather than of days or weeks. The end came at length. July 7th a great shout ran along the Federal lines; drums beat, bugles founded, the artillery on river and shore united in a grand burst of powder from unshotted guns. "Vicksburg is fallen!" was borne upon the air to the hearing of the astonished enemy. It was at once the cry of vic-ance of horse batteries on its banks, navigatory and the last summons to surrender. Informed of the report, Gardner quickly dispatched a note to Banks for an official assurance of its truth, "and, if true," he said, "I ask for a cessation of hostilities with a view to the consideration of terms for surrendering this position."

The Capitulation.

Banks replied by remitting, early on the morning of July 8th, a copy of Grant's dispatch of July 4th, announcing the capture of the upper fortress; adding: “I regret to say that, under present circumstances I cannot, consistently with my duty, consent to a cessation of hostilities for the purpose you indicate."

This at once brought the proposal for terms. Commissioners named by the two commanders met outside the breast works, hostilities ceased, terms of capitulation were signed and Port Hudson had ceased to exist as a Confederate fortress.

The prisoners were reported as 6458, of whom 455 were officers. The guns were; 15 heavy siege pieces in good condition; 31 field pieces in repairable order, and about 30 entirely dismounted, injured or otherwise unserviceable. The muskets were above 10,000 in number— some of them worthless, but above 5000 were found to be fine English rifles. Of powder there remained 32,000 pounds in magazine, and 12,000 pounds made up; also about 150,000 small arms cartridges.

This conquest opened the river, so far as obstructing fortifications were concerned, and the Mississippi was declared to be once more free from its source to its mouth;" but, what with guerillas and occasional appear

tion remained closed for many a month thereafter to all craft save the gunboat or carefully convoyed transport.

A Review.

If, as Grant argued, the fall of Vicksburg would consummate that of Port Hudson, the investment of the latter must be pronounced needless; but, the many contingencies of defeat which lay between Grant and his object, rendered it proper for Banks to proceed as he had arranged. The campaign up the Teche, it is declared by certain speculators in strategy, was a flank swoop down upon the river Gibraltar, designed to scatter Taylor's tatterdemalions, who menaced New Orleans by the Opelousas railway. But, the march of an army of thirty thousand men through swamp and cane-brake to scatter five thousand men, illy organized and unqualified for confronting a single division of the 19th Army Corps, makes the "flank"

A Review.

DICK TAYLOR'S DASH AT NEW ORLEANS.

movement, if such it was designed to be, a vast effort for an immaterial object. The fact that Taylor's bands all reunited and returned to Brashear almost before Port

Hudson was fairly invested, shows how perfectly futile was the exhausting Teche country march, if its prime purpose was to relieve the Crescent City from menace. Said Colonel Duganne, in his "Department of the Gulf: "

"No sooner did General Banks wheel his army Mississippi-ward than this war spirit blazed behind

him.

89

"Such was the aspect of affairs, when General 'Dick Taylor,' from his camps between Vermillion

ville and Franklin, on the Dick Taylor's Counter

Strokes.

Teche, and General Mouton,
from his headquarters near
cavalry and light artillery, under command of chosen
Opelousas, flung out their advances in the shape of
leaders, charged with no less a design than to open
the way for a combined assault on New Orleans.
General Taylor had planned, and General Mouton
ordered, that Colonel Majors, with his cavalry bri-
gade, should cross the Atchafalaya, at Morgan's
Ferry, proceed down Bayou Gros Tete, to Plaque-
mine, strike off to Bayou Lafourche, and then
descend the banks of that water course to the rear
of Brashear City. We have seen how Major fulfilled
his mission; when, after burning a half-dozen steam-
boats at Plaquemine, and chasing our provost-guards
out of Thibodeaux, he charged against stouter stuff
at Lafourche Crossing, and fell back with a loss of
some hundreds. That was the hour when he should
have been followed up by strong re-enforcements
from New Orleans. That was the moment when a

Partisans and guerillas sprang up on his flanks ubiquitously. Nomad horsemen hung about and harrassed his wagon trains, made sorties on his rear guard, captured his stragglers, ambushed his scouts. In Lower Louisiana we saw them following Colonel Chickering's caravan of cattle and contrabands almost to the guns of Brashear, and had they been as enterprising as our escort was actually feeble, they might have retaken the "spoil" and bagged the custodians.* In Upper Louisiana, at the same time, they were dashing down from the Ark-couple of gunboats and another regiment ought to ansas lines to attack Richmond and Lake Providence, while General Banks, recrossing the Atchafalaya, abandoned all the lately captured territory."

The siege of Port Hudsen, by Banks, must be treated as an isolated act, having no reference to the general result of a campaign to restore Louisiana to the Union. It, indeed, periled the Crescent City itself, for,

with less than a division there and at its out.

posts, only Taylor's weakness prevented his sudden descent on it. His approach was to have been the signal for a general rising of the disloyal element, then immensely preponderant in numbers, but the Texans and Arkansians responded too slowly to his call to achieve a victory which Banks had placed within their gr. sp. The detachment of a portion of Kirby Smith's force, to assist Johnston in his impracticable efforts to stay Grant's march, lost the trans-Mississippi department commander the opportunity either of reconquering New Orleans, or, by its menace, of compelling Banks to raise the seige of the river Fortress.

have arrived, by way of sea to the succor of Brashear City. Why these things were not done. or whether, in reality, there was force enough at New Orleans to have accomplished either, has never transpired through official sources, and, therefore, the good public must remain profoundly ignorant upon the subject. But, if the Crescent City was actually so denuded of strength as to be unable to

cover her approaches, or protect her outposts, then it must be concluded that Port Hudson was, at that

time, of more importance than New Orleans, and the former, instead of the latter, had properly absorbed the attention of our generals and their soldiers."

Affording a brief respite in recording the long list of Confederate defeats of that unlucky summer, Pollard reported Taylor's "campaign" as one of great brilliancy-only wanting in signal success from lack of numbers. His version we quote:

"Information received from Southwest Louisiana

had determined General Taylor to organize an attack upon Brashear City and its forts. Colonel Majors, who commanded a brigade of cavalry on the Atchafalaya, was to push boldly through the Gros Tete, Marangoin and Lafourche country, to Donaldson

telegraph communication, then push rapidly to

Said the writer above last quoted, of Gene-ville, thence to Thibodeaux, eut off the railroad and ral Dick Taylor's reoccupation of the lately "conquered territory":

Boeuf river, in the rear of Brashear City, while a

force under Generals Mouton and Green was to co

*Banks reported his force in New Orleans as not exceeding, at one time, over four hundred! He relied for its defense upon the presence of the fleet.

Dick Taylor's Counter
Strokes.

operate in front of the enemy's position, on Berwick's Bay. "On the 22d of June, General Mouton had succeeded in collecting some thirtyskiffs and other row-boats, near the mouth of the Teche, with a view to co-operate, from the west side of the Atchafalaya, with Colonel Majors' command, then on the Lafourche. An expedition, numbering three hundred and twenty-five gallant volunteers, under Major Sherod Hunter, started at six o'clock P. M., to turn the enemy's stronghold at Brashear City. It was a hazardous mission to cross the lake (twelve miles) in these frail barks, to land at midnight on the enemy's side, in an almost im penetrable swamp, and await the dawn of day, to make the desperate attempt which would insure victory or a soldier's death.

Dick Taylor's Counter
Strokes.

"The immediate fruits of the capture were one thousand prisoners, ten heavy guns, and a large amount of stores of all descriptions. The position obtained by General Taylor, with that of Thibodeaux, gave him command of the Mississippi river above New Orleans; enabled him, in a great measure, to cut off Banks' supples, and, it was hoped, might eventually force Banks to the choice of losing New Orleans or abandoning his operations against Port Hudson.

"But the plan which General Taylor had arranged for an attack on New Orleans, unfortunately fell through, in consequence of his disappointment of re-enforcements. His active force, not including the garrison at Berwick's Bay, was less than four thousand. He had obtained from New Orleans intelligence of the fall of Vicksburg and this, with the consequent fate of Port Hudson, rendered his position in the Lafourche extremely hazardous, and not to be justified on military grounds.

"On the 28th of June General Green had been

repulsed in an attack on Donaldsonville, after a desperate struggle, with two hundred and sixty

"The boat-expedition having got off, General Thomas Green, with the Fifth Texas mounted volunteers, the Second Louisiana cavalry, Waller's Texas battalion, and the Valverde and Nicholls' batteries, advanced, under cover of night, to opposite the enemy's camp. The Seventh and Fourth Texas regiments were thrown across the Atchafalaya, to Gibbons' Island, during the night. Gen-casualties. On the 12th of July, after the fall of eral Green was to attract the enemy's attention and fire, while the troops on Gibbons' Island were to be thrown across to the support of Major Hunter, as soon as the boats returned from the latter's landing point, in rear of the enemy's position.

Immediately after daylight, General Green fired the first gun from the Valverde battery, at a gunboat of the enemy, which was steaming up the bay in the direction of the upper fort (Buchanan). In stantly the whole bay was in a blaze, our guns playing upon the long lines of the enemy's tents. The Yankees were completely surprised. Their heavy guns, from three forts, opened on Green. There was a keen anxiety on our side for the sound of Colonel Majors' guns, for it only remained for him to occupy the Boeuf crossing, to cut off completely the enemy's communication. At last the long-distant sound of artillery told that Majors was there; and at the same moment the storming party of Major Hunter made its appearance on the edge of a piece of woods. With a real Texas yell the latter dashed at once, with bayonets fixed and pistols drawn, full at the threatening walls of the proud fort-in twenty minutes they had climbed its walls, dispersed its garrison, torn down the stars and stripes, and hoisted the Confederate flag over its ramparts. This heroic charge was made at the point of the bayonet, with unloaded muskets. In half an hour Generals Taylor, Mouton and Green, with their respective staffs, had their headquarters in the city of Brashear.

Port Hudson, the enemy, over four thousand strong, advanced six miles from Donaldsonville, where he was met by General Green, with his own and a part of Majors' brigade (in all twelve hundred men), and driven from the field, with a loss of about five hundred in killed and wounded, some three hundred prisoners, three pieces of artillery, many small arms, and the flag of a New York regiment. The gallant Green dismounted from his horse, placed himself at the head of his old regiment, captured the enemy's guns, and drove his forces into the fort, and under the guns of the fleet.

"These operations in Lower Louisiana were not followed by the important consequences which were at one time anticipated: for, as we have seen, Taylor's force was not competent to hold the Lafourche country against the overwhelming forces of the enemy released from the siege of Port Hudson. Yet the events we have briefly narrated, had afforded a certain encouragement to the South; for they were, at least, some relief from the unwelcome news we had hitherto had from an ill-starred portion of the Confederacy."

The loss at Brashear was one of considerable

magnitude. Its property in stores, rations, tents, guns, &c., was, in value, about one and a half millions of dollars. This immense depot was in charge of but a guard at most-over two-thirds of the men in the place being convalescents. A little gunbcat hovered around

GRIERSON'S RAID.

the spot, too small and tender ribbed to be of much service. No preparation for defense from the rear had been made, and when Taylor's cavalry was announced as raiding to the north and east of the post the surprise was complete, for, had not Banks but recently "cleared out" that region? Brashear fell,

91

an easy prey to the vigilant enemy, and its capture gave to the Confederate armies in Louisiana the supplies most needed to place their men in the excellent fighting condition which rendered them victorious, a few months later, when Banks attempted his reconquest of the Teche and Red river regions.

CHAPTER V.

MINOR APFAIRS IN THE WEST, FROM APRIL FIRST то AUGUST

FIRST.

ROSECRANS' mid-summer operations, in advancing upon Bragg's Duck river line, and flanking the enemy out of Shelbyville and Tullahoma, properly belong to the Chattanooga campaign. We therefore defer our notice of this advance to a future chapter.

Grierson's Raid.

Colonel B. H. Grierson's raid was one of the several enterprises ordered by Grant as a preliminary to his operations on Vicksburg from below. The enemy's presence along the Mississippi river left the central counties of the State open to incursion, and Grierson, then of GenOut of his situation, as well as that of eral Hurlbut's command, was dispatched on Grant, sprang numerous minor infantry and a mission of destruction. Leaving La Grange, cavalry conflicts which only a work more Tenn., at daybreak, April 17th, with a force voluminous and elaborate than this could of seventeen hundred strong and one battery essay to detail; but such adventures as Gri--composed of the Sixth and Seventh Illinois erson's cavalry raid from La Grange, Tenn., and Second Iowa cavalry regiments-the exacross Mississippi to Baton Rouge, La.-Colo-pedition moved southward without interrupnel Streight's raid into Northern Georgia- tion, passing through Ripley, to New Albany. Morgan's raid across the Ohio-Granger's At and above the latter place the Tallahatchie fight with Van Dorn, at Franklin, Tenn.-- was crossed, with but slight resistance, April Colonel Harrison's defense of Fayetteville. 18th. The next day detachments of destrucArk. — Reynolds' capture of McMinnville, tion were sent out-one of which communiTenn.-battle of Cape Girardeau, Mo.-Colocated with Colonel Hatch, (Second Iowa,) nel Clayton's cavalry expedition from Helena, moving down to the east. The object being Ark.-Colonel Phillips' engagement near to distract the enemy's attention as to the Fort Gibson, Arkansas.-General Kimball's objects of the expedition and its line of repulse of rebel attack on Jackson, Miss.- march, these detachments were made at nuEllett's destruction of Richmond, Miss.merous points along the route. Pontotoc was Colonel Sanders' raid into East Tennessee-reached late on the 19th, and, five miles beGeneral Blunt's victory over Cooper, at Elk yond, the reunited regiments encamped. Creek, Ark. Battle of the same at Honey springs, Indian Territory-Pegram's defeat at Paris, Ky.-should receive more than the "Summary" notice. To several of them we here recur.

From thence a strong guard, with one gun, was dispatched to return to La Grange, with prisoners and captured property. On the 20th Houston was passed to the southeast, and the night halt made eleven and a half

miles beyond that town, | miles west of which place the expedition enon the Starkville road. camped for the night. At eight o'clock A. M. of the 21-t, the road leading to Columbus was struck, when the Second Iowas and one gun were detached, with orders to destroy the Mobile and Ohio railroad, in the vicinity of West Point, and to proceed, destroying as they progressed, to Macon; thence to whip sharply around, return to Columbus, putting the torch to all government works at that place; then on to Okolona and back to La Grange. This detachment left Grierson with his two other regimen's,about nine hundred and fifty strong, to continue the raid.