andria
on the 29th of April; Warren, with the rest of his division, was
on his way up the Red River, when he found himself cut off near
Marksville. Then he seized Fort De Russy and held it until the
campaign ended.

Brisk skirmishing went on from day to day between the outposts and
advanced guards, yet Banks, though he had five men to one of
Taylor's,(1) held fast by his earthworks without making any real
effort to crush or to drive off his adversary, while on their part
the Confederates refrained from any serious attempt to interrupt
the navigation of the lower Red River until the evening of the 3d
of May, when near David's Ferry Major attacked and, after a sharp
fight, took the transport _City Belle_, which he caught coming up
the river with 425 officers and men of the 120th Ohio. Many were
killed or wounded, and many others taken prisoner, a few escaping
through the forest. Major then sunk the steamboat across the
channel and thus closed it. Early on the morning of the 5th of
May Major, with Hardeman's and Lane's cavalry brigades and West's
battery, met just above Fort De Russy the gunboats _Signal_ and
_Covington_, and the transport steamer _Warner_, and after a short
and hard fight disabled all three of the boats. The _Covington_
was set on fire by her commander and destroyed, but the _Signal_
and _Warner_ fell into the hands of the Confederates with many of
the officers and men of the three boats, and of a detachment of
about 250 men of the 56th Ohio, on the _Warner_. These captured
steamers, also, were sunk across the channel.

On the 2d of May, Franklin's wound compelling him to go to New
Orleans and presently to the North, Banks assigned Emory to the
command of the Nineteenth Army Corps. This brought McMillan to
the head of the First division and gave his brigade to Beal.
Captain Frederic Speed was announced as Assistant Adjutant-General
of the Corps. A few days later, in consequence of McClernand's
illness, Lawler was given the command of the Thirteenth Corps.

(1) Banks's return for April 30th shows 33,502 officers and men for
duty. May 10th, Taylor says: "To keep this up with my little
force of scarce 6,000 men, I am compelled to 'eke out the lion's
skin with the fox's hide.'" ("Official Records," vol. xxxiv., part
I., p. 590.) He does not count his cavalry.

CHAPTER XXIX.
LAST DAYS IN LOUISIANA.

On the 13th of May Banks marched from Alexandria on Simmesport,
Lawler leading the infant