Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

The latter was at last able to sail on the 26th of October. Franklin, notified beforehand, had recalled the detachments sent in the direction of Alexandria, and by the 27th he had sent Lawler's division on to New Iberia. On the 1st of November he left the vicinity of Opelousas with the remainder of his little army, and camped on the banks of Carrion Crow Bayou, which the road to Vermilionville crosses at an equal distance—say about fourteen miles—from these two towns. At a little distance before reaching it this road crosses another stream parallel with the first, called Bayou Bourbeux. The rearguard was formed of Burbridge's brigade, detached from the Fourth division of the Thirteenth corps; it came from the village of Barre's Landing, at the confluence of the Teche and Bayou Courtableau, and halted on the north bank of Bayou Bourbeux.

On the following day the Nineteenth corps halted at Vermilionville; the Third division of the Thirteenth corps, commanded by General McGinnis, and Burbridge's brigade, did not break their camps. In spite of a few musket-shots exchanged with some Confederate skirmishers, it was not thought that the enemy were strong in the vicinity: it was an open country; rideaux of green oaks, bordering the banks of the bayous, alone broke the monotonous horizon of the prairie. Hence, Franklin did not hesitate to divide his divisions on a line of nearly forty-five miles from Bayou Bourbeux to New Iberia.

The self-reliance of the Federals was such that, Burbridge's brigade not having yet left its camp on November 3d, that day was determined upon by the paymaster arrived from New Orleans to pay several regiments, and also to allow the voting of the Twenty-third Wisconsin, whose soldiers were to take part in their State election.

But the enemy, who had not been consulted, was now to interrupt the election operations in a manner which the legislator had been far from suspecting. Taylor, who had fallen back before the advance of Franklin without striving to contend for the line of the Teche, had again moved forward as soon as he heard that the latter