ed of Nelson
or Dundonald. Succeeding events at Vicksburg and Gettysburg so obscured
this one, that in justice to the officers and men engaged it has seemed
to me a duty to recount it.

Brent returned to Red River, with his boats much shattered by the fray;
and before we could repair them, Admiral Farragut with several ships of
war passed Port Hudson, and the navigation of the great river was
permanently lost to us. Of the brave and distinguished Admiral Farragut,
as of General Grant, it can be said that he always respected
non-combatants and property, and made war only against armed men.

In the second week of March a brigade of mounted Texans, with a four-gun
battery, reached Opelousas, and was directed to Bisland on the lower
Teche. This force numbered thirteen hundred, badly armed; and to equip
it exhausted the resources of the little arsenal at New Iberia. Under
Brigadier Sibley, it had made a campaign into New Mexico and defeated
the Federals in some minor actions, in one of which, Valverde, the four
guns had been captured. The feeble health of Sibley caused his
retirement a few days after he reached the Teche, and Colonel Thomas
Green, a distinguished soldier, succeeded to the command of the
brigade. The men were hardy and many of the officers brave and zealous,
but the value of these qualities was lessened by lack of discipline. In
this, however, they surpassed most of the mounted men who subsequently
joined me, discipline among these "shining by its utter absence." Their
experience in war was limited to hunting down Comanches and Lipans, and,
as in all new societies, distinctions of rank were unknown. Officers and
men addressed each other as Tom, Dick, or Harry, and had no more
conception of military gradations than of the celestial hierarchy of the
poets.

I recall an illustrative circumstance. A mounted regiment arrived from
Texas, which I rode out to inspect. The profound silence in the camp
seemed evidence of good order. The men were assembled under the shade of
some trees, seated on the ground, and much absorbed. Drawing near, I
found the colonel seated in the center, with a blanket spread before
him, on which he was dealing the fascinating game of monte. Learning
that I would not join the sport, this worthy officer abandoned his
amusement with some displeasure. It was a scene for that illustrious
inspector Colonel Martinet to have witnessed.

There also arrived from the east, in the month of March, 18