s chief of staff. The bulk of General Banks's army was about
Opelousas, under command of General Franklin, ready to move on
Alexandria. General Banks seemed to be all ready, but intended to
delay his departure a few days to assist in the inauguration of a
civil government for Louisiana, under Governor Hahn. In Lafayette
Square I saw the arrangements of scaffolding for the fireworks and
benches for the audience. General Banks urged me to remain over
the 4th of March, to participate in the ceremonies, which he
explained would include the performance of the "Anvil Chorus" by
all the bands of his army, and during the performance the
church-bells were to be rung, and cannons were to be fired by
electricity. I regarded all such ceremonies as out of place at a
time when it seemed to me every hour and every minute were due to
the war. General Banks's movement, however, contemplated my
sending a force of ten thousand men in boats up Red River from
Vicksburg, and that a junction should occur at Alexandria by March
17th. I therefore had no time to wait for the grand pageant of the
4th of March, but took my departure from New Orleans in the Diana
the evening of March 3d.

On the next day, March 4th, I wrote to General Banks a letter,
which was extremely minute in conveying to him how far I felt
authorized to go under my orders from General Grant. At that time
General Grant commanded the Military Division of the Mississippi,
embracing my own Department of the Tennessee and that of General
Steele in Arkansas, but not that of General Banks in Louisiana.
General Banks was acting on his own powers, or under the
instructions of General Halleck in Washington, and our assistance
to him was designed as a loan of ten thousand men for a period of
thirty days. The instructions of March 6th to General A. J. Smith,
who commanded this detachment, were full and explicit on this
point. The Diana reached Vicksburg on the 6th, where I found that
the expeditionary army had come in from Canton. One division of
five thousand men was made up out of Hurlbut's command, and placed
under Brigadier-General T. Kilby Smith; and a similar division was
made out of McPherson's and Hurlbut's troops, and placed under
Brigadier-General Joseph A. Mower; the whole commanded by
Brigadier-General A. J. Smith. General Hurlbut, with the rest of
his command, returned to Memphis, and General McPherson remained at
Vicksburg. General A. J. Smith's command was i