Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

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[326] Dorn resolved to strike a blow before he had time to organize and mature a new scheme of assault. The Federals held Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, forty miles below the mouth of Red River, with a land force of about three thousand five hundred men, in conjunction with four or five gunboats, and some transports. It was a matter of great necessity to us that the navigation of Red River should be opened as high as Vicksburg Supplies, much needed, existed there, difficult to be obtained from any other quarter, and strong military reasons demanded that we should hold the Mississippi at two points, to facilitate communications and co-operation between Van Dorn's district and the trans-Mississippi department. The capture of Baton Rouge, and the forces of the enemy at that point, would open the Mississippi, secure the navigation of Red River, then in a state of blockade, and might make practicable the recapture of New Orleans.

To secure these objects, orders were given to Gen. Breckinridge to move upon Baton Rouge with a force of five thousand men, picked from the troops at Vicksburg, and there was added to his command the effective force of Gen. Ruggles, then at Camp Moore, making a total force of six thousand men. To ensure the success of the plan, the Arkansas was ordered to co-operate with the land force by a simultaneous attack from the river. All damages sustained by the Arkansas from the fleets of the enemy had been repaired, and when she left the wharf at Vicksburg for Baton Rouge, she was deemed to be as formidable, in attack or defence, as when she defied a fleet of forty vessels of war, many of them iron-clads.

By epidemic disease the land force under Gen. Breckinridge was reduced to less than three thousand effective men, within the period of ten days after he reached Camp Moore. Advised, however, by telegram every hour of the progress of the Arkansas towards Baton Rouge, and counting on her co-operation, Breckinridge, on the morning of the 5th August, determined to attack the enemy with his whole effective force, then reduced o about two thousand five hundred men. The attack was gallantly made; and the enemy, driven from all his positions, was forced to seek protection under the cover of his gunboats.

Breckinridge had listened in vain for the guns of the Arkansas. She never reached the scene of contest. After arriving within a short distance of Baton Rouge, in ample time for joint action at the appointed hour of attack, she had suddenly become unmanageable, from a failure in her machinery, which all the efforts of her engineers could not repair. Lieut. Stevens, her commander, moored her to the shore; and on the cautious approach of the enemy, he landed her crew, cut her from her moorings, fired her with his own hands, and turned her adrift down the river. With every gun shotted, the Confederate flag floating from her prow, and not a man on board, the Arkansas bore down upon the enemy. It was a strange spectacle, this vessel, abandoned by commander and crew, and dedicated