which arrived off the bar on the 3d, containing (he says)" E. J. Davis and many other apostate Texans, beside several hundred troops, and 2,500 saddles for the use of native sympathizers." Her captain, however, was seasonably warned to escape. One Galveston Unionist, named Thomas Smith, who was landed from her yawl, he caught, tried, and shot as a deserter from the Rebel service. And that was the sum of his "spoils". Com. Farragut, soon after, sending vessels to reestablish the blockade, before the Harriet Lane could be got ready to run out and roam the seas as a Rebel corsair.

that the chase had ceased to steam and was waiting. Blake, whose guns were short as well as few, ran down to within 75 yards and hailed; when the stranger answered his hail by proclaiming his craft Her Britannic Majesty's ship Vixen. Blake thereupon offered to send a boat aboard; and was proceeding to do so-each of them maneuvering for a better position-when the stranger shouted, "We are the Confederate steamer Alabama," and poured in a broadside; which was promptly returned.

The Alabama being every way the superior vessel, Blake had no hope, save in closing with and boarding But at Sabine Pass, a perform- her; which he attempted to do; but ance soon after occurred which was the Alabama had the advantage in scarcely less disgraceful to our arms speed as well as force, and easily than this at Galveston. The broad baffled him. Both vessels were firing estuary at the mouth of the Sabine every gun that could be brought to was blockaded by the Union gunboat bear, and as rapidly as possible, at a Morning Light, 10 guns, and the distance of but 30 yards-the Alabaschooner Velocity, 3 guns; which ma having received considerable inwere attacked" by two Rebel gun- jury-when two of her shells simulboats-Josiah Bell and Uncle Ben-taneously entered the Hatteras at fitted out in the Sabine for the pur- the water-line, exploding and setting pose, under command of Major O. M. her on fire; and a third pierced her Watkins, who chased our vessels out cylinder, filling her with scalding to sea and captured them after a very steam, crippling her walking-beam, feeble resistance. Watkins reports and disabling her engine; while his captures at "13 guns, 129 prison- water poured in profusely from the ers, and $1,000,000 worth of stores." | rift in her side, threatening her with The blockade of Galveston having barely been rëestablished under Com. Bell, of the Brooklyn, a sail was descried 12 in the south-east; when the gunboat Hatteras, Lt.-Com'g R. G. Blake, was signaled by Bell to overhaul her. The stranger affected to fly; but Blake soon observed that he did not seem in any great hurry. Clearing his decks for action, he stood on; and, when four miles distant, he saw

11 Jan. 21, 1863.

speedy destruction. The Alabama now working ahead, beyond the range of the Hatteras's guns, Blake ordered his magazine to be flooded, and fired a lee gun; when the enemy afforded assistance in saving our men-the Hatteras going down ten minutes afterward. Her crew-(118, including six wounded)-were transferred to the conqueror; she having had two killed. The Alabama, 12 Jan. 11, 31 P. M.

13

GEN. BANKS'S POSITION AND FORCE.

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though considerably cut up, so as to | jumble of grand canal, river, sound, be compelled to run into Kingston, and lagoon, receives the waters of the Jamaica, for repairs, had but one Bayou Teche-each of them heading man wounded. And no wonder; near, and at high water having navisince the Hatteras's heaviest guns gable connection with, Red river. were 32s, while of the Alabama's (9 South of the railroad and east of the to our 8), one was an 150-pounder on Atchafalaya, the country had already a pivot, another a 68; and she threw been in good part overrun by our 324 pounds of metal at a broadside forces; but our possession of it was to the Hatteras's 94. With such a imperfect and debated. Beyond and disparity of force, the result was in- above, all was Rebel; while fortifievitable. cations at Butte à la Rose, well up the Atchafalaya, and Fort Bisland, at Pattersonville, on the Teche, were intended to bar ingress by our gunboats from Red river or by our land forces from New Orleans. Fort Bisland was flanked by Grand Lake on the right, and by impassable swamps on the left; a Rebel force, estimated [too high] by Gen. Banks at over 12,000 men, held these strong works and the adjacent country; while to hold New Orleans securely, with its many protecting forts and approaches, Key West, Pensacola, Ship Island, &c., with all Texas backing the zealous and active Rebel partisans in Louisiana, who were promptly apprised by their spies of any weak spot in our defenses-to say nothing of the danger of hostile attacks from the side of Alabama and Mississippi

Gen. N. P. Banks, having assumed 1 command of the Department of the Gulf, found himself at the head of a force about 30,000 strong, which had been officially designated the 'Nineteenth Army Corps.' With this, he was expected, in cöoperation with Grant's efforts up the river, to reopen the Mississippi, expel the Rebels in arms from Louisiana, and take military possession of the Red River country, with a view to the speedy recovery of Texas, whose provisional Governor, Gen. Andrew J. Hamilton, surrounded by hundreds more of Union refugees, was with him at New Orleans, and naturally anxious for an immediate movement upon their State; which they believed ripe for restoration. Their hopes of such a demonstration, however, were soon blasted, as we have seen, by our needless and shameful disasters at Galveston and Sabine Pass. Meantime, Gen. Banks had dispatched " Gen. Cuvier Grover, with 10,000 men, to reoccupy Baton Rouge, which had been relinquished to the enemy, and which was now recovered without a struggle.

14

From New Orleans, a single railroad reaches westward to Brashear City on the Atchafalaya, where that

13 Dec. 11, 1862.

required the larger part of his corps; so that Banks found his disposable force reduced by inevitable details to less than 14,000 men; while the Rebel array in and around Port Hudson was reported by his spies at 18,000; rendering a siege without large rëenforcements impossible. He, therefore, turned his attention first to the line of the Atchafalaya.

An attempt to open the Bayou 14 Dec. 18, 1862.

15

the more deadly fire of sharp-shooters from rifle-pits; when, at 10 A. M., a bullet through his head struck him dead on the instant.

Plaquemine, connecting with the Atchafalaya near Butte à la Rose, having failed-the bayou being found so choked by three years' accumulation of snags and drift as to be im- By this time, the 8th Vermont had passable by boats-Gen. Weitzel's gained the Rebel rear, and was maforce on Berwick's Bay was increased king a rapid clearance of their rifleto 4,500 men, with a view to an ad- pits; while the batteries of the 1st vance to and operations in the Teche Maine, the 4th and 6th Massachusetts, region. Starting 1 from Thibodeaux, supported by sharp-shooters from the Gen. Weitzel embarked his infantry 75th and 160th New York, had flanked next day at Brashear, on the gunboats the defenses on the other side, and Calhoun, Diana, Kinsman, and Es- were sweeping the decks of the Cottrella, Com. McKean Buchanan, who ton, whose crew beat a retreat, as did moved slowly up the bayou to Pat- most of the Rebels on land, whereof tersonville; the artillery and cavalry but 40 were taken prisoners. The going by land. Encountering for- Cotton was fired during the ensuing midable obstructions at a place night, and utterly destroyed. The known as Carney's Bridge, a few force here beaten consisted of the miles above, Com. Buchanan, after 28th Louisiana, with Simms's and reconnoitering, dropped down a short the Pelican battery, under Col. Gray distance for the night; returning-in all, but 1,100 men, beside the next morning 10 to attack; while the crew of the Cotton. Our loss was 8th Vermont was sent around to flank the defenses on the north.

16

The obstructions were found vexatious rather than formidable: consisting of a steamboat filled with brick and sunk across the channel, with the great iron-clad gunboat Cotton behind it; a battery on either flank, and some torpedoes in the bayou below. One of these was exploded under the Kinsman; lifting her stern into the air, but not crippling her; when she fell back to avoid another just ahead, whereof a negro fugitive from the Cotton gave timely warning. Com. Buchanan, on the Calhoun, either not hearing or despising the caution, at once took the advance, standing on the bow of his vessel, spy-glass in hand, in the midst of a furious cannonade from the Cotton and Rebel batteries, and

7 killed and 27 wounded.

Gen. Banks being still intent on opening the Atchafalaya by the meditated advance through the Bayou Plaquemine to the capture of Butte à la Rose, the next month was wasted on this enterprise; and the success at Carney's Bridge was not otherwise improved. Meantime, some 200 Western boys defeated" a like number of the 3d Louisiana cavalry at Old River; losing 12 men, killing 4, wounding 7, and taking 26 pris

FARRAGUT PASSES PORT HUDSON.

our forces were hastily recalled from the Atchafalaya and concentrated at Baton Rouge; where they crossed and advanced,” about 12,000 strong, driving in the Rebel pickets, to the rear of the Port; Farragut having intended, under cover of a land attack on that side, to run the batteries early next morning. He judged best, however, to anticipate Gen. Banks's attack, the night being intensely dark; so, in his stout flag-ship Hartford, lashed side to side with the Albatross, he led the perilous adventure; arriving abreast of the Rebel batteries a little before midnight.

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thick with sulphurous smoke that great care was needfully exercised by our commanders to avoid firing into each other; our aim being now directed by the flashes of the enemy's guns; which, changing from shell to grape as our vessels came within musket and pistol-shot, swept our decks by murderous discharges; some of their batteries being placed on bluffs so high that they could not be harmed by our shots; while the crescent shape of the defenses, following the curve of the channel, enabled them to rake each vessel as it approached, and again as it receded. If he had counted on passing un- The greatest care was requisite to observed, or shrouded in darkness, avoid grounding or colliding in the he was much mistaken. Hardly was dense darkness which followed the he within range of the nearest Rebel burning out of the Rebel bonfire; guns, when signal-lights were seen and there were several narrow esflashing from every direction, includ- capes from these ever imminent dising the opposite shore; and, directly, asters. It was 11 P. M. when the the flames of a vast bonfire in front first gun spoke: and by 1 the fight of the heaviest batteries shot up into was virtually over-the Hartford and the sky, lighting the entire breadth the Albatross having passed; while of the river as though it were mid- most of their consorts had failed, and day. Rockets were soon streaming dropped down to their anchorage bein the air; now a gun from the west low--when a fresh blaze told of a bank saluted the Hartford, which heavy loss. The Mississippi had run instantly returned the compliment; aground directly abreast of the heaviand the next moment the earth trem-est and most central battery; where bled to the roar of all the Rebel bat- she was soon discovered and became teries; whereupon our mortar-boats a target for them all. Here Capt. below began firing 13-inch shell at Melancthon Smith fought her nearly the enemy; and the frigates Hart- half an hour, till she was completely ford, Mississippi, Richmond, and Mo-riddled; when he ordered her set on nongahela, and gunboats Albatross, fire and abandoned; and she was; Genesee, Kineo, Essex, and Sachem, burning aground till she was so lightas they severally came within range, ened that she floated; when she driftfired broadside after broadside; the ed down the river a blazing ruin, brass howitzers in their tops and the exploding, several miles below, when heavy pivot guns at the bow and the fire had reached her magazine. stern being industriously worked; Of her 233 officers and men, but 29 while the atmosphere was soon so were missing at roll-call next day.

19 March 13-14,

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