en with the _Brooklyn_
and six other vessels of the fleet up the river. On the 8th, as
early as the river transports could be secured, Butler sent Williams
with the 4th Wisconsin and the 6th Michigan regiments, and two
sections of Everett's 6th Massachusetts battery, to follow and
accompany the fleet. The next day Williams landed his force at
Bonnet Carre, on the east bank of the river, about thirty-five
miles above the town. After wading about five miles through a
swamp, where the water and mud were about three feet deep, the
troops halted at night at Frenier, a station of the Jackson railway,
situated on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, about ten miles above
Kenner. A detachment of the 4th Wisconsin, under Major Boardman,
was sent to Pass Manchac. The Confederates made a slight but
ineffective resistance with artillery, resulting in trivial losses
on either side. The bridges at Pass Manchac and Frenier being then
destroyed, on the following morning, the 10th, the troops marched
back the weary ten miles along the uneven trestle-work of the
railway from Frenier to Kenner and there took transport. After
their long confinement on shipboard, with scant rations, without
exercise or even freedom of movement, the excessive heat of the
day caused the troops to suffer severely. The embarkation completed,
the transports, under convoy of the navy, set out for Baton Rouge.
There on the morning of the 12th of May the troops landed, the
capitol was occupied by the 4th Wisconsin, and the national colors
were hoisted over the building. The troops then re-embarked for
Vicksburg.

Natchez surrendered on the 12th of May to Commander S. Phillips
Lee, of the _Oneida_, the advance of Farragut's fleet. On the 18th
of May the _Oneida_ and her consorts arrived off Vicksburg, and
the same day Williams and Lee summoned "the authorities" to surrender
the town and "its defences to the lawful authority of the United
States." To this Brigadier-General Martin L. Smith, commander of
the defences, promptly replied: "Having been ordered here to hold
these defences, my intention is to do so as long as it is in my
power."

On the 19th the transports stopped for wood at Warrenton, about
ten miles below Vicksburg, and here a detachment of the 4th Wisconsin,
sent to guard the working party, became involved in a skirmish with
the Confederates, in which Sergeant-Major N. H. Chittenden and
Private C. E. Perry, of A Company, suffered the first wo