officers
to none but white men.

The 1st and 2d regiments were sent into the district of La Fourche
to guard the railway.

Then, between Butler and Weitzel, in spite of confidence on the
one hand and respect and affection on the other, began the usual
controversy about arming the negro. To one unacquainted with the
history of this question and of those times it must seem strange
indeed to read the emphatic words in which a soldier so loyal and,
in the best sense, so subordinate as Weitzel, declared his
unwillingness to command these troops, and to reflect that in a
little more than two years he was destined to accept with alacrity
the command of a whole army corps of black men, and at last to ride
in triumph at their head into the very capital of the Confederacy.

With the exception of the levies raised by its commander, the
Department of the Gulf had so far received no access of strength
from any quarter. From the North had come hardly a recruit. In
the intense heat and among the poisonous swamps the effective
strength melted away day by day. Thus the numbers present fell
3,795 during the month of July; in October, when the sickly season
had done its worst, the wastage reached a total of 5,390. At the
time of the battle of Baton Rouge, Butler's effective force can
hardly have exceeded 7,000. When his strength was the greatest it
probably did not exceed, if indeed it reached, the number of 13,000
effective. The condition of affairs was therefore such that Butler
found himself with an army barely sufficient for the secure defence
of the vast territory committed to his care, and for any offensive
operation absolutely powerless. To hold what had been gained it
was practically necessary to sit still; and to sit still then, as
always in all wars, was to invite attack.

These things Butler did not fail to represent to the government,
and to repeat. At last, about the middle of November, he received
a few encouraging words from Halleck, dated the 3d of that month,
in which he was assured that the "delay in sending reinforcements
has not been the fault of the War Department. It is hoped that
some will be ready to start as soon as the November elections are
over. Brigadier-generals will be sent with these reinforcements."
With them was to be a major-general, the new commander of the
department; but this Halleck did not say.

CHAPTER V.
BANKS IN COMMAND.

When the campaigns of 1862 were drawing to an end,