t rest for breakfast arrived at Berwick
Bay at eleven o'clock on the following morning. In the last
thirty-one hours the command had marched forty-eight miles. In the
forty-one days that had passed since the campaign opened the 114th
New York had covered a distance of almost 500 miles, nearly every
mile of it afoot and with but three days' rest. The same afternoon
the crossing began, and by the 28th every living thing was in safety
at Brashear.

Banks had sent his despatches of the 13th of May to Grant by the
hands of Dwight, with instructions to lay the whole case before
Grant and to urge the view held by Banks with regard to the
co-operation of the two armies. Dwight proceeded to Grand Gulf by
steamboat, and thence riding forward, overtook Grant just in time
to witness the battle of Champion's Hill on the 16th of May. That
night he sent a despatch by way of Grand Gulf, promising to secure
the desired co-operation, but urging Banks not to wait for it.
The message arrived at headquarters at Simmes's plantation on the
evening of the 17th, and was at once sent on to Brashear to be
telegraphed to the commanding general at New Orleans. This assurance
sent by Dwight really conveyed no more than his own opinion, but
Banks read it as a promise from Grant, and once more convinced that
it would be futile to attempt a movement toward Grand Gulf with
the limited means of transport he had at hand, he again changed
his plan and determined to go directly to Bayou Sara, hoping and
trusting to meet there on the 25th of May a corps of 20,000 men
from Grant's army.

The effective strength of the force now assembled near the head of
the Atchafalaya was 8,400 infantry, 700 cavalry, 900 artillery; in
all, 10,000. This great reduction was not wholly due to the effects
of the climate, hardships, and long marches, but is partly to be
ascribed to heavy detachments. These included the six regiments
with Chickering, one at Butte-a-la-Rose, and one at Brashear.

At Simmesport the Corps sustained its first loss by expiration of
service. The 6th New York, having completed the two years' term
for which it had enlisted, went by the Atchafalaya and the railway
to New Orleans, and there presently took transport for New York to
be mustered out.

The movements of the army, though pressed as much as possible, were
greatly retarded by the scanty means of water transportation and
the pressing need of coal. From this cause the navy was also
s