V.-MILITARY ADVENTURES BEYOND | half of them steamers, and a force of about ten THE MISSISSIPPI. General Banks Supersedes General Butler.-Farewell.- thousand men. The destination of this fleet was kept a profound secret from the country. Even the officers who accompanied it were ig norant of its purpose. "General," said one of them to the comvid E. Twiggs.-War Incidents.-Heroic Death.-Sn-mander, "we want to know what kind of clibine Pass Expedition.-The Red River Expedition.-mate we are going to, in order to know whethTriumphs and Disasters. - War's Romance and Rav- er to provide ourselves with thick or thin cloth age. N the fall of 1862 General Banks was ordered pedition being fitted out at that port. This ing." On the 15th of December this fleet arrived at consisted of a fleet of nearly fifty vessels, one New Orleans. Its object was to strengthen the worst punishment inflicted, except for criminal acts punishable by every law, has been banishment, with labor, to a barren island, where I encamped my own soldiers before marching here." "But I have not so conducted. On the contrary, the military power in Louisiana, redeem the entire | Union, before my coming, were a sufficient provocation State from rebel control, co-operate with Gen- and justification. eral Grant above, in re-opening the Mississippi River, and operate in various expeditions in the trans-Mississippi district. General Banks superseded General Butler. The latter was ordered to report at Washington. He issued on the same day a farewell address to his soldiers. His language resembled, in its terse, laconic character, the eloquence of Napoleon, whom he may almost be said to have rivaled in the vigor of his administration: "I greet you, my brave comrades, and say farewell! "This word-endeared as you are by a community of privations, hardships, dangers, victories, successes military and civil-is the only sorrowful thought I have. You have deserved well of your country. Without a murmur you sustained an encampment on a sand-bar so desolate that banishment to it, with every care and comfort possible, has been the most dreaded punishment inflicted upon your bitterest and most insulting enemies. "You had so little transportation that but a handful could advance to compel submission by the Queen City of the rebellion. "Landing with a military chest containing but seventy-five dollars, from the hoards of a rebel government you have given to your country's treasury nearly half a million of dollars, and so supplied yourselves with the needs of your service that your expedition has cost your Govern ment less by four-fifths than any other. He recounted in the same terse and powerful language the principal acts of his administration, and conjured them to return to their allegiance; then declared plainly the only obstacle which prevented such return, and the way to deal with it: "There is but one thing that at this hour stands between you and the Government, and that is slavery. "This institution, cursed of God, which has taken its wheat, although the wheat be torn up with it. last refuge here, will be rooted out, as the tares from "I have given much thought to this subject. political position, by social affinity, inclined to sustain "I came among you by teachings, by habit of mind, by your domestic laws, if by possibility they might be with safety to the Union. "Months of experience and of observation have forced the conviction that the existence of slavery is incompatible with the safety either of yourselves or of the Union. As the system has gradually grown to its present huge dimen sions, it were best if it could be gradually removed; but it is better, far better, that it should be taken out at once than that it should longer vitiate the social, political, and family relations of your country. "I am speaking with no philanthropic views as regards the slave, but simply of the effect of slavery on the master. this saddening, deadening influence has not all but deSee for yourselves. Look around you and say whether destroyed the very frame-work of your society." "By your practical philanthropy you have won the confidence of the oppressed race,' and the slave. Hailing you as deliverers they are ready to aid you as willing servants, faithful laborers, or, using the tactics taught them by your enemies, to fight with you in the field. "You have met double numbers of the enemy and feated them in the open field. But I need not farther enlarge upon the topic. You were sent here to do that. "I commend you to your commander. You are worthy of his love. "Farewell, my comrades! Again farewell! On the following day General Banks by pub lic proclamation assumed coramand of the Department of the Gulf, to which was now added the State of Texas. The change in commanders was very generally believed to be in consequence of a desire on the part of the Government to The policy purpursue conciliatory measures. sued by General Banks confirmed this hypothesis. He suspended all-public sales of property on account of the United States until further orders. He released a number of political pris He addressed himself also to the citizens of New Orleans; defended himself, for the first and last time, in a few brief words, from the calumnies that had been heaped upon him; and appealed to their own consciousness to testify that no one had suffered under his command who had conducted himself with propriety. In oners. a few scorching words he unveiled the hypocHis inaugural proclamation was of a risy of England's assumed horror at his sup-followed in ten days by another, accompanying conciliatory and persuasive character. It was posed severities : "I do not feel that I have erred in too much harshness; for that harshness has ever been exhibited to disloyal enemies of my country, and not to loyal friends. To be sure I might have regaled you with the amenities of British civilization, and yet been within the supposed rules of civilized warfare. You might have been smoked to death in caverns, as were the Covenanters of Scotland by the command of a general of the royal household of England; or roasted, like the inhabitants of Algiers during the French campaign; your wives and daughters might have been given over to the ravisher, as were the unfortuscalped and tomahawked, as our mothers were at Wyoming by the savage allies of Great Britain in our own Revolution; your property could have been turned over to indiscriminate loot,' like the palace of the Emperor of China; works of art, which adorned your buildings, might have been sent away, like the paintings of the Vatican; your sons might have been blown from the mouth of cannon, like the sepoys of Delhi: and yet all this would have been within the rules of civilized warfare, as practiced by the most polished and the most hypocritical nations of Europe. For such acts the records of the doings of some of the inhabitants of your city toward the friends of the nate dames in the Peninsular war; or you might have been the President's emancipation proclamation, the object of which seemed to be to demonstrate to the rebels' satisfaction that "the war is not waged by the Government for the overthrow of slavery," and that the only way to secure its preservation was by a return to the Union. These measures, however, accomplished no good results. They encouraged but did not conciliate the rebels. The order which had been preserved under the more stringent rule of his predecessor was followed by growing disorders. The soldiers were insulted in the streets. Indecent and threatening letters were sent anony mously to various officers. Jefferson Davis was publicly cheered by crowds of men and boys. Thus experience demonstrated the necessity of rigor. General Banks found himself compelled to change somewhat his tone. He gave public notice that offensive demonstrations of any kind would be instantly and severely punished. confirmed the order of General Butler assessing, for the support of the poor, those rich secessionists who had subscribed to the secession fund. And he thus demonstrated both his ability and his purpose to preserve order by measures of severity should those of conciliation fail. He | Gulf of Mexico by the Atchafalaya River. Near the head of this river, and not far from the shore of the lake is Brashear City, connected with New Orleans by the New Orleans, Opelousas, and Great Western Railroad, of which it is the present western terminus. Flowing into this lake is the Bayou Teche, which rises in St. Landre parish, and flows thence in a southeasterly direction through the towns of Opelousas, Martinsville, and Franklin. After the capture of the capital of the State the remains of the rebel State government had retreated to Opelousas, where the rebel Legislature was in fact assembling in accordance with a proclamation of the Governor on the very day on which General Banks assumed command of the Department of the Gulf. Thus passed the winter of 1862-'63 in arranging the civil government, and in preparing for military movements in the spring. The military operations of General Banks in the Department of the Gulf naturally range themselves under four great expeditions. The Port Hudson, the Opelousas, the Texas, and the Red River expeditions. The first we have described in our last Number. It is to the other three we now direct our readers' attention. West of the Mississippi River lies an exceedingly rich and fertile section of country. It is intersected by numerous bayous and large lakes, and embraces much of the richest lands in the State. It is called by the Southerners "The Paradise of the South." The rebels, not anticipating any attack from the Union soldiers in this quarter, had put in their crops as usual. A small force was stationed in the heart of this section for its protection; and its efficiency was greatly increased by the presence of a small gunboat, the Cotton, which, threading with ease the innumerable bayous and lagoons, afforded very efficient protection against any mere land-forces. In the midst of this region, some seventy-five miles west of New Orleans, in a straight line, is Lake Chetimacha. It is connected with the VOL. XXX.-No. 179.-QQ In October previous General Butler had fitted out a double expedition for the purpose of destroying the rebel gun-boat, capturing rebel crops, especially cotton, and obtaining possession, or at least control, of this part of Louisiana. A fleet of five vessels left New Orleans, sailed up the Atchafalaya River, passed Brashear City, and entered the Teche River. Here, however, they found formidable obstructions and land batteries, and were compelled to withdraw from the pursuit of the rebel gun-boat until the land-forces should arrive. Meanwhile General Weitzel, with a brigade of five regiments, left on transports, landed at Donaldsonville on the Mississippi River, and commenced a march across the country to join the fleet at Brashear City. About nine miles beyond Donaldsonville they met the enemy, who were drawn up in line of battle to receive them. But after a short though brilliant engagement, the rebels ignominiously fled, leaving two hundred and sixty-eight prisoners in General Weitzel's hands, with one piece of artillery. During the remainder of his march he met with little or no resistance. The negroes flocked in great numbers to his camps, each bringing some palatable addition to the soldiers' otherwise hard fare. The people, surprised to be kindly treated, learned to regard as friends those whom they had been taught to look upon, as enemies. The retreating rebels burned their warehouses, destroyed their crops, took whatever they wanted, and made no other recompense than Confederate scrip. The patriot army provided the rural population with a valuable market in New Orleans for such articles as their professed friends had not stolen or destroyed, and paid fair prices for what they took. Meanwhile the Opelousas Railroad, destroyed by the rebels, was repaired by a force moving directly west from New Orleans, and thus communication was opened between General Weitzel and the former place. Joining the fleet at Brashear City early in January, the combined expedition proceeded up the Teche River. Here they found formidable preparations made to resist the further advance of the expedition. Rifle-pits and concealed batteries were planted on the shore. Torpedoes and obstructions were placed in the river. The position of the land defenses, flanked by an impenetrable swamp, was such as to prevent a successful attack by the national infantry. And after a brief but gallant engagement the fleet were compelled to fall back. One principal object of their expedition, however, was accomplished. For the rebels, fearing that another attack might prove more successful, and determined not to allow their gun-boat to fall into the hands of their antagonists, applied the torch to the steamer, and floated her down toward the national fleet, one sheet of flame. Satisfied for the present with this measure of success, General Weitzel retired to Thibodeaux, near the Opelousas River, which he made his head-quarters. Such was the condition of affairs when General Banks undertook a second expedition up the Bayou Teche. Early in April he rendezvoused his forces at Brashear City. They were organized in two divisions, one under the command of General Emory, the other commanded by General Grover. General Banks accompanied the expedition in person. The rebels had already provided a strong line of intrenchments near Franklin. A palisade of piles and earth, three feet high, protected by a natural ditch or bayou, extended for several miles from the lake on the east, across the Teche River, to impassable swampy woods on the west. The passage of the river itself was most effectually obstructed by the rebels; while the lake and swamp prevented any flank movement. The position was a strong one, and easily defended by a small number against a vastly superior force. General Banks sent General Grover with his division to effect a landing on the shore of the lake in the rear of these works, while he advanced upon them in front with General Emory's division. The movement proved successful. General Grover's landing was in vain resisted. After a brief engagement the enemy were routed and compelled to take refuge in the woods and canes. Advancing upon them, General Grover drove them before him until he had nearly reached the bank of the river. Meanwhile Generals Banks and Emory advanced directly upon the rebels by land from Brashear City. Their advance was hotly but vainly contested by the rebels, who gradually fell back to their breast-works. The successes of General Grover had rendered these untenable, and at length, on the 14th of April, after three days of fighting, the enemy abandoned their position altogether, and beat a hasty retreat. Two of their gun-boats and three transports they destroyed to prevent their falling into the Federal hands. One other was destroyed by the Union gun-boats after a hot engagement on the lake. In this battle General Banks shared all the dangers of the front in common with his soldiers. At one time he and his staff became a mark for the guns of a rebel gun-boat. One or two shells having struck near them, General Banks ordered them to disperse, and rode slowly away himself toward another part of the field. A correspondent present felt inclined to condemn his bravado. "I expected to see them gallop off at doublequick," said he; "but what was my surprise when I saw them walking their horses as if they were going to a funeral!" The result proved the superior judgment of the General. In a few minutes a shell from the boat, well-aimed, struck the ground half a mile distant, just about where he would have been had he galloped instead of walking away from the scene of danger. Curiosity is sometimes stronger than fear. At one period in the engagement a part of the infantry lay concealed upon the ground while a skirmish line was thrown out in advance. The shot and shell were whistling over their heads. Any head exposed became straightway a target for the enemy's batteries. But it was impossible to lie still, ignorant of the events which were transpiring. All along the line heads were raised, one after another, to reconnoitre the field. Some even, in their eagerness, stood upright. The most positive command from the superior officer passed unnoticed. Nor was he able to secure their concealment, till he had threatened to arrest the first man who showed himself to the enemy. The fear of arrest was greater than the fear of shot and shell. The true soldier dreads dishonor more than death. General Banks left the rebels no time to recover from the effects of their disastrous defeat. Reveille at four, breakfast at five, march at six, was the order given the morning after the battle. First Franklin, then Iberia were taken possession of by the Federal forces. In both places were large foundries. So precipitate was the rebel retreat that they had no time to destroy |