Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[253] that a solid and easily movable body of twenty-five thousand men may quickly strike each separate portion of the divided forty thousand in turn,, with superior numbers? To the practical solution of this problem the Nationals now addressed themselves.

Being charged with other important duties at this time which required his presence in New Orleans, General Banks intrusted the arrangement of his portion of the expedition to General Franklin, who was to move on the 7th of March, and reach Alexandria on the 17th. Meanwhile, Admiral Porter, who had agreed to meet Banks there on that day, was promptly at the mouth of the Red River on the 7th, with his powerful fleet of fifteen iron-clads and four light steamers,¹ and there he was joined on the 11th by the transports, with four divisions² of Sherman's army, under General A. J. Smith, and the Marine Brigade, under General Alfred Ellet, three thousand. strong. There was just water enough for the larger gun-boats to pass; and on the morning of the 12th they moved up the river, led by the Eastport. That vessel, with others that might follow, was charged with the duty of removing obstructions in the river, and to amuse Fort de Russy by a feigned. attack until the army should land at Simms' Port, on the Atchafalaya, and. get in the rear of that post, to attack it.

To cover the landing of the troops on the site of Simms' Port (the town had been destroyed), nine of the gun-boats turned into the Atchafalaya, followed by the transports. The crew of the Benton landed, and drove back Confederate pickets upon their main body, three miles in the rear; and when the divisions of Generals Mower and T. Kilby Smith landed,

March 13, 1864.

the entire opposing force fell back toward Fort de Russy. Mower, with a brigade, then reconnoitered toward Yellow Bayou, when he found that the Confederates had fled from a post there, burning the bridge behind them.

It was now decided to land the whole column, and march it overland to, Fort de Russy, a distance of about thirty miles; and at daybreak on the. morning of the 14th it moved, in light marching order, Mower in the advance. Very soon the Nationals began to feel their foe, and they were compelled to skirmish with the Confederate cavalry, in front and rear, nearly all the way, until they approached the fort in the afternoon. They had. marched, fought, and built a bridge over the Yellow Bayou (which consumed two hours), since dawn, and now, without rest, attacked the fort, which was armed with eight siege-guns and two field-pieces, two of the former in position to command the river.

In the mean time the gun-boats had removed the obstructions in the,