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

[266] the command of General T. Kilby Smith. The latter was charged with the arduous duty of covering the retreat to Alexandria. He was hotly pressed, and compelled to skirmish with the foe hovering on flank and rear, almost from the beginning of the march; and, on the morning of the 23d,

April 1864.

he had a severe engagement near Clouterville, on the Cane River, where he formed a battle-line, with General Mower on his right. Smith gallantly and skillfully conducted the engagement for about three hours, when the Confederates, repulsed at every point, withdrew. The National loss was about fifty men; that of the Confederates was estimated at one hundred, at least. On the afternoon of the following day, the whole army moved on without encountering serious resistance, and, on the 27th, entered Alexandria, after an absence of twenty-four days.

While the army was making its way toward Alexandria, the navy was having a difficult passage in the same direction. The Eastport, as we have seen, was floated, but she was found difficult to manage. She grounded several times, and finally, at a point about sixty miles below Grand Ecore,, she became so fast on a bed of logs that she could not be moved. Lieutenant-Colonel Bailey had offered to help her over the numerous bars, by means of wing dams; but his assistance was declined, for “no counsel of army officers was regarded in nautical affairs.” ¹ Satisfied that she could not be floated before a rise in the river, and finding delay to be very dangerous, on account of the gathering of the Confederates on the shores of the stream, Porter ordered her to be blown up. The explosion and ensuing fire made her destruction complete.

April 26.

At the same time,. more than a thousand Confederates had gathered near, and taking advantage of the situation, rushed to the right bank of the river to board the Cricket, Master H. H. Goninge, lying there. She moved out, and gave them such a storm of grape and canister-shot, while the Fort Hindman poured a heavy cross-fire upon them, that, in the space of five minutes, not a guerrilla was to be seen. Then the vessels which had been convoying the Eastport went on down the river without molestation, until they reached the mouth of Cane River, twenty miles below, when the Cricket, which was ahead, with Admiral Porter on board, received eighteen shots from as many cannon planted on the shore at a bend in the stream. Nearly every shot went through her; one of her guns was disabled, and every gunner was killed or wounded. This first fire was followed by a shell, which exploded near her forward gun, killing or wounding every man attached to it, and in the fire-room close by. Her decks were now deserted, when Porter ordered her to be run by the battery. It was done, under a heavy fire. Then, having made gunners of some negroes on board, and placed the navigation of the boat, whose engineer and pilot had been disabled, in other hands, he attempted to assist the other boats still above the battery. He found he could not do much, so, he ran the Cricket a few miles down the river, to a point where he had directed the Osage and Lexington to meet him, to summon them to the assistance of the Fort Hindman and two or three other vessels. He found these fighting a Confederate field-battery. Darkness fell before the struggle ended, and the Cricket could not return. But during the gloom the other