The National tribune., 1906-01-04

operate with him in an attack upon |
Alexandria and also to patrol the river
and look out for force coming down
from the Arkansas country by the way
to follow the Arizona. Farragut i'm
mediately ordered the two vessels
back, and sent with them the Alba
tross, with Lieut. Commander John F.
Hart in command Of all OF them. Hart
examined Black River, found no indi-
cations of any force in that neighbor-
hood, and ran on up toward Alexan-
dria, reaching the neighborhood OF
GordOn's Landing on the evening of
May 3. The next morning they start
ed early, and at $40 reached the bluff
and bend which had been the scene Of
the capture of the Queen of the West
10 weeks before. Not desiring to run
into the same trap, Hart moved slowly
around the bluff to investigate, and
saw in front of him a fort with three
casemates-Fort DeRussey-the guns
of which commanded the long stretch
of the river in front of it. Two river
steamers, with steam up. lay near the
fort and a f1atboat upon which had
been mounted one of the heavy guns
taken from the Indianola. Near these
was a heavy raft blocking the stream
and secured by chains to both banks
The AlbatrOss moved up to within 500
yards and opened fire, though she was
much embarrassed by the eddies and
the intricacy of the channel She kept
up the fight 40 minutes encountering
not only the heavy guns of Fort De-
Russey but a storm of rifle shots from
the men on the river steamers, who
were contemplating repeating Magrud-
ers exploit at Galveston in boarding
the gunboats and carrying them by
overwhelming force. After having been
hulled II times having her spars and
rigging injured and losing two men
killed and four wounded Lirut.-COm-
mander Hart decided that the force
was too strong for him TO grappIe with
with his light fleet and gave the order
to retire. On his way down the river he
met Commodore Porter who had left
Grand Gulf as soon as he saw it i'm
possession of Grant, and started for
the Red River taking with him the
flagship Benton, the Lafayette, Pitts
the tug Ivy. Porter ordered the Es-
trella and Arizona to join him, sent
the Albatross back to Farragut. and
started up the river again, arriving in
front of Fort DeRussey on the evening
Of May 5, to find the fort abandoned
and all the guns, except one 64-pound-
er, removed. The raft was struck by
the Prices ram and opened and the
Arizona, being the fastest vessel, was
rushed ahead to surprise any steamer
that might be at Alexandria. She found
that the town had been evacuated bv
Confederate public property to Shreve-
port. $50 miles farther up whittier the
gunboats could not follow him.
Bnnks's Advance.
From Opelousas Banks marched on
quite deliberately toward Alexandria
His men now had all experience such
as does not often come TO soldiers in
the field They were like Grants men
in his operations in the rear of Vicks-
hpfnra he Riysc h fS Inc ne
supplies above the city. In that fer
tile country. SO far untouched by war
there was an abundance of fresh meat
Of all kinds, including poultry At
first the men reveled in the change
from army rations. but 1t was not long
before they became disgusted with
chicken. fresh pork, beef, mutton and
corn bread. 80 that they loathed the
sight Of such food. April % the little
steamer Cornie arrived at Barre's
Landing from the base Of supplies at
Brashear City with a full cargo Of
army rations and the men howled
| their delight at getting back to the
good old salt pork, hardtack, coffee
and sugar.
April "a Banks INDUCED in a quite
unnecessary review of his entire army
on one of the fine prairics near Opel
ousas. He found that all his regiments
had been cut down severely by the
march, which told hardly upon his
new soldiers, but those who appeared
In line were i'm the best Of spirits and
anxious for further service.
TaylOr's army w2s rapidly going to
pieces, and near Opelousas the Texans
left him in a body to return to their
own State He withdrew with what
was left to him toward Alexandria, but
made the march as deliberately as pos-
sible and checked Bankss pursuit by
burning the bridges over the bayous
and rivers as he passed them. Banks
made no haste, as Grant, Sheridan or
Thomas would have done to catch this
remnant and destroy it, but instead
marched forward deliberately and
halted before the burnt bridges to give
his engineers abundant time to con-
struct new ones
The roads were good, the weather
fine, and though Banks had definitely
Of May 9, Weitzels Division reached a
point some IL miles from Alexandria
on the afternoon of May Z, and was
there Informed by the cavalry that
Porter was already In the river off AL
exandria and that the town had been
abandoned by Taylor. The regiments
began a race for the honor of being
the first to enter the city and at 10
o'clock that evening Weitzel's old bri-
gade reached the town ahead OF all the
others. At Alexandra Banks had a
long conference with Porter and IL
was decided that as the river was fall
ing Porter should withdraw with
all his vessels except the Lafayette. He
was to send four gunboafs up the
Black River to more certainly ascer-
tain the condition OF affairs in north
ern Louisiana and Arkansas Gen.
Weitzel followed the Confederate rear
guard to Lawson's Ferry, Al miles
above Alexandria. taking a few prison.
ers and coming near TO capturing Tay-
lor himself.
Gen Banks's Ultenior Objects.
Gen. Banks kept himself busy if he
did not his army. One Of the reasons
for his supersession OF Butler was that
the clamor over Buffers drastic policy
had become too great for the Admins
tration to longer disregard. AS usual
I'm the Southern States. the Union men
in Louisiana were divided into two hos |
tile camps which hated one another
quite as much as they did the common
enemy. Buffers rule had been highly
satisfactory to the smaller and more
radical faction. but quite distasteful to
the weather., more influential and con-
servative Unionists. These now urged
that as Butler hadf applied the cautery
quite severely to the Secession inflam-
nation. 1T was time for gentler hand
to soothe with an emollient. II this
were done with sufficient skill and tact