tedious, yet, once accomplished, the army would have found
itself, with the help of the navy, above and beyond Port Hudson,
with a sufficient line of communications open to the rear, and the
Mississippi and the Red River closed against the enemy.

The Confederates had in Western Louisiana, near the mouth of the
Teche, a small division of Taylor's troops, about 4,500 strong,
with one gunboat. At first Banks thought to leave a brigade, with
two or three light-draught gunboats, on Berwick Bay to observe
Taylor's force, and then to disregard it as a factor in the subsequent
movements. This, while the Atchafalaya was high and the eastern
lowlands of the Attakapas widely overflowed, might have been safely
done, but all these plans were destined to be essentially modified
by a series of unexpected events in widely different quarters.

In the second week of January, Weitzel heard that Taylor meditated
an attack on the outlying force at Berwick Bay, and that with this
view the armament of the gunboat _Cotton_ was being largely augmented.
Weitzel resolved to strike the first blow. For this purpose he
concentrated his whole force of seven regiments, including four of
his own brigade, besides the 21st Indiana, 6th Michigan, and 23d
Connecticut, with Carruth's and Thompson's batteries, four pieces
of Bainbridge's battery, Barrett's Troop B of the Louisiana cavalry,
and Company B of the 8th New Hampshire, commanded by Lieutenant
Charles H. Camp. The 1st Louisiana held Donaldsonville and the
114th New York guarded the railway. To open the way, as well as
to meet the fire of the _Cotton_, there were four gunboats of the
light-draught flotilla under Buchanan--the flagship _Calhoun,
Estrella, Kinsman,_ and _Diana_.

At three o'clock on the morning of the 13th of January the crossing
of Berwick Bay began; by half-past ten the gunboats had completed
the ferriage of the cavalry and artillery; the infantry following
landed at Pattersonville; then the whole force formed in line and,
moving forward in the afternoon to the junction of the Teche with
the Atchafalaya, went into bivouac. The next morning began the
ascent of the Teche. The 8th Vermont was thrown over to the east
or left bank of the bayou, while the main line moved forward on
the west bank to attack the _Cotton_, now in plain sight. The
gunboats led the movement, necessarily in line ahead, owing to the
narrowness of the bayou. On either bank Weitzel's line of battle,
wi