d preceded by Grierson's cavalry,
marched on Clinton by way of Olive Branch and the plank road. That
night Paine encamped at Redwood creek; on the 6th he made a short
march to the Comite, distant nine miles from his objective, and
there halted till midnight. Then, after a night march, the whole
force entered Clinton at daylight on the morning of the 7th, only
to find that Logan, forewarned, had gone toward Jackson. Then
Paine countermarched to the Comite, and, remaining till sunset,
marched that evening to Redwood, and, there going into bivouac, at
two o'clock on the following morning, the 8th of June, returned to
the lines before Port Hudson. On this fruitless expedition the
men and horses suffered severely from the heat, and there were many
cases of sunstroke.

By the 1st of June the artillery and the sharp-shooters of the
besieged had obtained so complete a mastery over the guns of the
defenders, that on the whole line these were practically silent,
if not silenced. In part, no doubt, this is to be ascribed to a
desire on the part of the Confederate artillerists to reserve their
ammunition for the emergency, yet something was also due to the
effect of the Union fire, by which, in the first week, twelve heavy
guns were disabled. The 10-inch columbiad in water battery 4 was
dismounted at long range. This gun was known to the Union soldiers,
and perhaps to the Confederates first, as the "Lady Davis," and
great was the dread awakened by the deep bass roar and the wail of
the big shells as they came rolling down the narrow pathway, or
searched the ravines where the men lay massed. The fire of the
navy also did great damage among the heavy batteries along the
river front. When the siege batteries were nearly ready, on the
evening of the 10th of June, Banks ordered a feigned attack at
midnight by skirmishers along the whole front, for the purpose, as
stated in the orders, "of harassing the enemy, of inducing him to
bring forward and expose his artillery, acquiring a knowledge of
the ground before the enemy's front, and of favoring the operations
of pioneers who may be sent forward to remove obstructions if
necessary." None of these objects can be said to have been
accomplished, nor was any advantage gained beyond a slight advance
of the lines, at a single point on Weitzel's front, by the 131st
New York. The full loss in this night's reconnoissance is not
known; in Weitzel's own brigade, there were 2 killed, 41