e
command of the 1st brigade from Clark; but these arrangements were
promptly set aside by orders from headquarters. The left wing,
comprising Augur's division and Sherman's, now Dwight's, was placed
under the command of Augur.

Along the whole front the troops now held substantially the advanced
positions they had gained on the 27th of May. This shortened the
line, and, as it was on the whole better arranged and the connections
and communications better, Augur took ground a little to the left
and held, with Charles J. Paine's brigade, a part of the field that
had been in Sherman's front on the 27th; while Dwight, in closing
up and drawing in his left flank, moved nearer to the river and
covered the road leading in a southerly direction from the Confederate
works around the eastern slope of Mount Pleasant and past Troth's
house.

The cavalry, being of no further use to the divisions, but rather
an encumbrance upon them, was massed, under Grierson, behind the
centre, and assigned to the duty of guarding the rear, the depots,
and the communications against the incursions of the Confederate
cavalry, under Logan, known to be hovering between Port Hudson and
Clinton, and supposed to be from 1,500 to 2,000 strong. Logan's
actual force at this time was about 1,200 effective. Grierson had
about 1,700, including his own regiment, the 6th Illinois, the
7th Illinois, Colonel Edward Prince, a detachment of the 1st
Louisiana, the 3d Massachusetts cavalry, and the 14th New York.

As fast as the engineers were able to survey the ground and the
working parties to open the roads, Arnold and Houston chose with
great care the positions for the siege batteries, and heavy details
were soon at work upon them, as well as upon the long line of
rifle-pits, connecting the batteries and practically forming the
first parallel of the siege works. The positions of some of these
batteries, especially on the left, were afterward changed; but as
finally constructed and mounted, they began at the north, near the
position of the colored regiments on the right bank of Foster's
Creek, and extended, at a distance from the Confederate works
varying from six hundred to twelve hundred yards, to the Mount
Pleasant road, across which was planted siege battery No. 21. The
first position of siege battery No. 20 is marked "old 20," and the
three formidable batteries on the extreme left, Nos. 22, 23, and
24, were not established till later, the attack of