what might be expected farther on, and this
was confusing and difficult to the last degree. Weitzel had,
therefore, strong reason for believing that his difficulties,
instead of ending with the capture of the Confederate works, might
be only beginning. There was, of course, the chance that the
garrison along the whole front might throw down their arms or
abandon their defences the moment they should find themselves taken
in reverse at any point, for it was known that they had no reserves
to be reckoned with after breaking through the line. Grover had
been ordered to support either the right or the left, or to attempt
to make his way into the works, as circumstances might suggest.
This last he had tried, and failed to accomplish. On his left
there was no attack to support. When riding toward the right he
met Weitzel, who, although commanding the right wing, was his junior
in rank as well as in experience, Grover gave Weitzel the counsel
of prudence, and Weitzel fell in with these views. The two commanders
decided to ask fresh orders or to wait for an assault on the centre
or left before renewing the attack on the right.

All this time Augur stood ready, his division formed and all in
perfect order, waiting for the word from Banks, who made his
headquarters close at hand, and who, in his turn, waited for the
sound of Sherman's musketry as the signal to put in Augur. With
Sherman, Augur was in connection along the front, although not in
easy communication. The precise nature of the causes that held
Sherman back it is, even now, impossible to state, nor would it be
easy, in the absence of the facts, to form a conjecture that should
seem to be altogether probable and at the same time reasonable.
The most plausible surmise seems to be that Sherman supposed he
was to wait for the engineers to indicate the point of attack, and
that he himself did not choose to go beyond what he conceived to
be his orders to precipitate a movement whose propriety he doubted.
Sherman was an officer of the old army, of wide experience, favorably
known and highly esteemed throughout the service for his intelligence,
his character, and his courage. He was known as one of the most
distinguished of the chosen commanders of the few light batteries
that the government of the United States had thought itself able
to afford in the days before the war. Before coming to Louisiana
he had commanded a department, and in that capacity had carried to