Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[343] just arrived from Van Buren, crosses the Arkansas, approaches the Federal camp unperceived, and drives off the flock. Phillips starts immediately in pursuit, recaptures a portion of his sheep, and after a brisk engagement drives the Confederates beyond the Arkansas. A few weeks later, Phillips' troops being in want of provisions, a large train coming from Missouri under the escort of fifteen hundred men proceeded in the direction of Fort Blunt by following the valley of the Neosho. This force, composed of whites, negroes, and Indians, was attacked on the 1st of July near Cabin Creek by the Cherokee colonel Waitie at the head of four hundred mounted men, half of whom were Texans and the other half of his own nation. After a fight which lasted the whole day the Federals succeeded in dislodging their adversaries on the following day, and, having dispersed them, forced the passage of the river.

On the 3d of May, just as Grant was leaving Grand Gulf in order to throw himself into the enemy's open country, Porter, with four vessels, was turning his back upon this city and descending the stream as far as the mouth of Red River. Here he found Admiral Farragut, and, as we have already stated, reached Alexandria on the 6th, at the same time that Banks' advance-guard arrived, after taking possession of Fort De Russy on the way, which had been abandoned by the enemy. The Federal army, which had left Opelousas on the 5th of May, was concentrated at Alexandria on the 9th.

When, after the battle of Port Gibson, Grant decided to undertake an immediate campaign against Pemberton, he invited Banks, as we have mentioned, in a despatch forwarded on the 10th of May from Auburn, to join him before Vicksburg. It was impossible for Banks to respond to this invitation: he could not transport his whole army from Alexandria to Grand Gulf by water, and if lie had been able to do so he would thereby have exposed New Orleans and all the neighboring districts of Louisiana to the incursions of Taylor on the one side and of the garrison of Port Hudson on the other. Besides, to leave Alexandria was to abandon the materiel of the army and the depots that had been established in the place, together with the five or six thousand negroes who had come to seek freedom under