Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-07-31
From the Nav Orleans Delta.
PAYING THEIR WAY.

mont Infantry stationed at Fort IKE
have been displaying their innate Green
Mountain thrift in favor of Uncle SAM
They took possession May 9th, finding
the fort dismantled and robbed of every
thing movable, the guns dismounted and
spiked, and all the buildings either torn
down or burned. During the two months
they have garrisoned the fort, they have
removed the spikes from all the guns,
mounted them as far as they had the car
riages, cleaned up the rubbish, retaken
large quantities of the ordnance, quarter
masters and commissaries' stores stolen
during the interregnum, and captured any
number of small boats, one launch, one
schooner, one steam pile-driver, also the
steamer j. Morgan Brown, and were a
party to the capture of the steamer Grey
Cloud. These two steamers are valued at
$4,000 each, and are now used by the
Government as transports.
The capture of the j. Morgan Brown
had somewhat of the Deo,cn East enter
prise and novelty which characterized the
movements of Green Mountain Boys I'M
der old Ethan. This steamer being in
the service of the confederates, was stow
ed away by its owners seven miles up a
narrow, crooked bayou of Pearl river,
hidden by over-hanging trees, and forty
miles from Fort Pike. Some cloudy in
timations of her whereabout being OBJ
tanned from the contrabands, an expedi-
ton of thirty men in five small boats, I'M
der the joint command of Lieuts. Parker
and Dickinson was fitted out to search
the wilderness. They stealthily passed
the guerrilla pickets at Pennington and
the Jackson plantation, and rowed be-
tween sunset and sunrise, a distance
which. with the opposing current, would
make over so miles, found the skulker,
and took it without a chance for fight,
as the picket guard 'skedaddlef at their
approach. They, how r, had the pre-
caution to remove small piece of the
machinery which was indispensable to a
steam locomotion, and so this little band
was driven to desecrate the sacred soil of
Mississippi by performing a quantum of
free labor within her limits. Accordingly,
by dint of "getting out lines" rowing and
polling, they dragged her safely out and
brought her to Fort Pike in just As hours.
They did not shun the pickets SO obsequi-
ously on their return-but instead Of this,
Lieutenant Dickinson went ashore at the
jackson plantation with small squad,
drove in the pickets, and brought away
one of their hats with Yankee bullet
hole through it, two secession flags, and a
quantity of the furniture belonging to the
boat secreted there. He slso took on the
same scout 81 Gee F2rth Ct rope and hose
belonging to the Secesh gunboat Blen-
Vile. The Government will donbtlessly
have plenty of use for this here.
They have only lcSt one man in al
these transactions, though they have hac
two or three skirmishes. At one time
| % men, under Lieuts. Thrall and Dickin
don, were attacked by mounted guer
rilla force of 1875 men, which were re
pulsed with the loss of three men an,
four horses. The Vermont Boys had
single six-pounder gun, but no fixed am
munition, SO they improvised a few char
ges by tying up % ounce bullets in
canvas bag, and firing away in true un
derbrush style. Under cover of this fir
they landed and took the Fort. Lieu
Dickinson and one man of his compan
were cut off by the: sudden charge of tn
cavalry, but returned uninjured by swim
ming to pirogue and pulling down
the steamer with their hands, exposed a
the way to their fire.
Their latest enterprise is in taking u
, the chain and anchors on boom whic
Secesh built across the Rigolets, to guar
the approach of Yankees. They foun
there 20 large anchors, and over 5000
fathoms of new chain. They had take
up nearly half of the boom when the
were ordered to rejoin their Regiment u
the Mississippi. The Fort is to be CARR
soned by Capt. Bucks Company of til
18th Maine Regiment. We hope Cap
Buck will do as well as his predecesse
Captain Porter. & naa, aores eo +