Upon returning within our lines, Debray's regiment was ordered to dismount and support Walker's divison of Texas infantry, hotly engaged in the woods in our left front. There a severe conflict was kept up, without advantage on either side, but with considerable mutual loss, until night brought it to a close.
This was, at best, a drawn battle. Both armies held the ground which they occupied in the morning, but General Taylor, apprehending a renewal of the contest on the next day, knowing that water was not accessible where his troops stood, determined to fall back to a creek five miles distant, there to select a position. Debray's and Bushel's regiments were left on the battle-field, with instructions to observe the enemy, and, if necessary, to retire slowly before his advance. Pickets exchanged shots till nearly daybreak, when a reconnoisance was pushed up, without opposition, to the town of Pleasant Hill, which was found evacuated by the enemy, who, behind a thin curtain of outposts, had decamped, early at night, in the direction of Natchitoches, leaving in our hands his wounded and unburied dead.
A part of the cavalry started in pursuit, while another part proceeded, with artillery, to Blair's Landing, on Red River, to attack gunboats. There the gallant Major-General Tom Green fell—an irreparable loss to our army. General Taylor, relying on his troops,
