es, reached me from east of the Mississippi, and were directed to
the Lafourche. There also reported to me Brigadier Alfred Mouton, son of
Governor Mouton, and a West Pointer. This officer had been wounded at
Shiloh, and was now ordered to command on the Lafourche. His
instructions were to make Thibodeaux his centre of concentration, to
picket Bayou Des Allemands and Donaldsonville, thirty miles distant
each, to secure early information of the enemy's movements, and to
provide a movable floating bridge by which troops could cross the bayou,
as the water was too low to admit steamers from the river. These same
instructions had been given to the senior officer present before
Mouton's arrival, but had been imperfectly executed. A feint on Des
Allemands had induced the movement of nearly half the little force in
that direction, and Mouton had scant time after he reached Thibodeaux to
correct errors before the enemy was upon him.

In the last days of October the Federal General, Weitzel, brought up a
force of some 4,000 from New Orleans, landed at Donaldsonville, and
advanced down the Lafourche, on the west bank. There were Confederates
on both sides of the bayou, but, having neglected their floating bridge,
they could not unite. With his own, the 18th, the Crescent, Colonel
McPheeters, and the four-gun battery of Captain Ralston--in all 500
men--Colonel Armand resisted Weitzel's advance at Labadieville, eight
miles above Thibodeaux. The fighting was severe, and Armand only retired
after his ammunition was exhausted; but he lost many killed and wounded,
and some few prisoners. Colonel McPheeters was among the former, and
Captains Ralston and Story among the latter. The loss of the Federals
prevented Weitzel from attempting a pursuit; and Mouton, who deemed it
necessary to retire across Berwick's Bay, was not interrupted in his
movement. With his forces well in hand, Mouton would have defeated
Weitzel and retained possession of the Lafourche country. The causes of
his failure to concentrate have been pointed out. Information of these
untoward events reached me on the road from the north, and I arrived at
Berwick's Bay as Mouton was crossing.

To return to the time of departure from the Lafourche. Several days were
passed at New Iberia in attention to a matter of much interest. Some
eight miles to the southwest of the village there rises from the low
prairie and salt marsh, at the head of Vermilion Bay, an island of high
land