The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-05-08
what General Banks has Accom-.
pIished.
1dence of the New York Herald.

plished.
CORRESPONDENCE of the New York Herald.
New ORLEANS, April 10, 1863.-Ihe
boastad sport of Southern rural grandeur
1.-THE Country of the Attakapas, " "The
Garden of Louisiana" "The Paradise OF
the South lis ours.
From Berwick city to Opelousas the
victorious army of Gen. Banks has adj
vanced. Three battles, three gunboats,
and three transports the enemy has lost in
three days. Twice were they defeated by
the main army of Gen. Banks, behind their
entrenchment on the Beaseland plantation,
between PattersOnville and Centreville, as
the struggling fire and final silence of their
guns in the face of our batteries, on Sum
day and Monday, fully proved, while Gro
yer, at the same time, was reaching their
rear, harrassing, engaging, and finally drl-
wing them before him with such rapidity
that they were compelled to make stand
on Monday, at Irish Bend, where sharp
and decisive battle was fought, in which
the rebels were defeated and fed into the
woods.
Three gunboats- Diana. HART and
Queen of the West-are no more. The
two former were fired in the Teche by the
rebels, to prevent their falling into our
hands-the former on Monday, the latter
on Tuesday, lille the Union gunboats,
Estella, Calhoun, and Arizona, at 10
O'Clock on Tuesday morning, discovered,
attacked and destroyed, in Grand Lake,
the famous ram Queen of the West.
Three large transports-the Newsboy,
Gossamer, and Era No. (which were ly-
ing at Franklin, were also destroyed by
fire, as it was found impossible to get up
steam and escape up or down the Teche
before our troops would Overtake and
seize them. The consequence was that,
like the Diana and Hart, they were burn
ed to prevent their falling into our hands.
When l left Gen. Banks headquarters,
on Friday morning at 10 O'Clock, four
miles above New Iberia, or Newtown (the
army having been advancing from the
neighbOrhOod since 6 o'clock A. NJ, we
had already captured between fourteen
and fifteen hundred prisoners. Some
were barefooted, others without blankets,
and hatless, and all meanly and scantily
dressed in coarse home-spun.
GEN. BANKS FREE LABOR PLAN.
The New Bedford Mercury publishes an
extract from letter from an officer in the
3Sth Massachusetts volunteers, dated Ber-
wick City, La, April 10, which says:
We passed many immense plantations,
whose standing cane showed the secesh absen-
tee, whose fears dictated flight when Weitzel
came in last year. Others had been cleared,
crops sold and work going on well. These
last are being worked by free labor on General
Banks new plan. lam told the scheme is APP
parently success here, and it is believed the
region will, lift escapes the ravaGes OF war,
produce large return in sugar and molasses.
had much conversation with the railroad Su-
perintendent keen Connecticut officer, who
is perfectly convinced of the practicability of
Banks free labor scheme from a full years
observation He has $500 under his control
He says he is perfectly convinced, too, of the
perfect feasibility of employing white labor.
The health of his numerous white employees
last year was better than that of his blacks.
The Newark Adoertise1' thus sums up
the result of the recent brilliant military
operations in Gen. Banks Department:
The important results already attained by
this expedition can scarcely be properly appre-
ciated. The most fertile portion of the State,
bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, has been
wrested from them; their concealed harbors.
have been broken up, and an immense num-
Der of steamers, already completed or nearly
finished, have been destroyed; their stores of
food. ammunition and horses, intended for the
rebel army in Mississippi, have been seized,
and their salt mines taken; and, finally, an en-
tire section of the State, amounting to nearly
one fifth of its whole territory hitherto thought
impenetrable and uncOnquerable, has been
brought under the authority Of the Federal
Government Unless the enemy succeed
in arresting the advance of Major General
Banks, at Alexandria, still more important re-
suits will follow; the plan Of that able officer
evidently being to strike the Red River at or
near the rapids at Alexandria, some sixty or
seventy miles from its mouth and thus cut off
from the rebel army at VicksbUrg and Port
Hudson the supplies they have derived over it.
He may also be able to repeat, On the Red River
and on much larger scale, the blow at their
steamers and gunbOatS, so successfully admin
istered just now on Grand Lake; its long and
tOrtuous course being the great harbor of all
their vessels intended for the Mississippi which
have hitherto eluded our gunboats by darting
into its narrow and intricate channels. Unless
a disaster befalls Gen. Banks, it would seem as
ifall this vast region is about to lie torn from
the rebel grasp, and instead of ministering to
their cause, as it has done in the past, will be-
come a principal means ofreducn@ their strong
holds on the Mississippi, through the agency
of want.
Something Like Il Whale.