lat bottomed scows, loaded with artillery and artillery
men. These were indispensable when on Monday morning we found that it
was impossible for our ship to approach within half a mile of the
shore, and the men were ferried from the steamer to the bank, where a
lively little skirmish was going on between some Confederate scouts and
Col. Dick Holcomb's First Louisiana. General Grover was ahead of us,
smoking as usual, and in his excitement he had lighted a second cigar
and was vigorously puffing and pulling at both corners of his mouth. He
grasped Colonel Bissell by the hands in welcome, as the colonel leaped
from the boat. No delay now, forward! A few hundred yards brought us to
the woods. Our skirmishers went through and we soon had orders to
follow. We halted at the open clearing on the other side and awaited to
hear from General Grover, who had gone ahead to reconnoitre. Off to the
southwest we could hear the artillery firing that told us that Emory's
forces were having a fierce fight with Taylor's, only a few miles away.
Another half mile advance, another halt and again forward. Just as the
sun was going down we crossed the Teche over a drawbridge and filed
into the main road and skirted the fertile plantation of Madame Porter.
This stately, handsome lady, surrounded by scores of fat, happy looking
and well clad slaves, stood in front of her elegant home and sadly
watched us as we passed. No farm in Connecticut, however carefully
supervised, could show better evidences of wise management than this.
The houses, fences, granaries, fields, slave quarters and everything,
were in perfect order--all were clean, whole, and systematically
arranged. The fertile soil seemed to proclaim audibly to our farmer
boys its readiness to give back a hundred and fifty fold for its seed
and care. The shades of night were falling fast when we filed into an
open ploughed field and moved by the right of companies to the rear
into columns. We halted, stacked arms, ate hardtack and raw pork, and
rested. The ground was soft alluvial; mist came with sundown and rain
came with the darkness, and the surface of the earth was soon
transformed into soft, deep mud. There was no noise, no music, no
laughter. Every man knew instinctively that the morrow's sun would
shine upon many a corpse. Our generals had believed, and we had hoped,
that as soon as Taylor would find this large force of ours suddenly
occupying the road in his rear, he would submit to t