THE DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA.
A month of rest at Richmond restored my health, which subsequently
remained good; but in leaving Virginia I was separated from my brigade,
endeared by so many memories. It remained with Lee's army, and gained
distinction in many battles. As the last preserved of Benjamin on the
rock of Rimmon, scarce a handful survived the war; but its story would
comprise much of that of the Army of Northern Virginia, and I hope some
survivor, who endured till the end, will relate it. A braver command
never formed line of battle.
And now I turned my steps toward the West, where, beyond the "father of
waters," two years of hard work and much fighting awaited me. The most
direct route to the Southwest was by Chattanooga, where General Bragg
was concentrating the Army of Tennessee. This officer had requested the
War Department to assign me to duty with his army as chief of staff, and
it was suggested to me to call on him _en route_. He had reached
Chattanooga in advance of his troops, then moving from Tupelo in
northern Mississippi. In the two days passed at Chattanooga, General
Bragg communicated to me his plan of campaign into Kentucky, which was
excellent, giving promise of large results if vigorously executed; and I
think its failure may be ascribed to the infirmities of the commander.
Born in North Carolina, graduated from West Point in 1837, Bragg served
long and creditably in the United States artillery. In the war with
Mexico he gained much celebrity, especially at Buena Vista, to the
success of which action, under the immediate eye of General Zachary
Taylor, he largely contributed. Resigning the service, he married a
lady of Louisiana and purchased an estate on the Bayou Lafourche, where
he resided at the outbreak of civil war. Promoted to the rank of general
after the death of Albert Sidney Johnston, he succeeded Beauregard,
retired by ill health, in command of the Army of Tennessee. Possessing
experience in and talent for war, he was the most laborious of
commanders, devoting every moment to the discharge of his duties. As a
disciplinarian he far surpassed any of the senior Confederate generals;
but his method and manner were harsh, and he could have won the
affections of his troops only by leading them to victory. He furnished a
striking illustration of the necessity of a healthy body for a sound
intellect. Many years of dyspepsia had made his temper sour and
petulant; and he was intolerant to a degree of neglect of duty, or what
he esteemed to be such, by his officers. A striking instance of this
occurred during my visit. At dinner, surrounded by his numerous staff, I
inquired for one of his division commanders, a man widely known and
respected, and received this answer: "General ---- is an old woman,
utterly worthless." Such a declaration, privately made, would have been
serious; but publicly, and certain to be repeated, it was astonishing.
As soon as we had withdrawn to his private room, I asked by whom he
intended to relieve General ----. "Oh! by no one. I have but one or two
fitted for high command, and have in vain asked the War Department for
capable people." To my suggestion that he could hardly expect hearty
cooeperation from officers of whom he permitted himself to speak
contemptuously, he replied: "I speak the truth. The Government is to
blame for placing such men in high position." From that hour I had
misgivings as to General Bragg's success, and felt no regret at the
refusal of the authorities to assign me to duty with him. It may be said
of his subordinate commanders that they supported him wonderfully, in
despite of his temper, though that ultimately produced dissatisfaction
and wrangling. Feeble health, too, unfitted him to sustain
long-continued pressure of responsibility, and he failed in the
execution of his own plan.
The movement into Kentucky was made by two lines. General Kirby Smith
led a subordinate force from Knoxville, East Tennessee, through
Cumberland Gap, and, defeating the Federals in a spirited action at
Richmond, Kentucky, reached Lexington, in the center of the State, and
threatened Cincinnati. Bragg moved on a line west of the Cumberland
range toward Louisville, on the Ohio River; and this movement forced the
Federal commander, Buell, to march north to the same point by a parallel
road, farther west. Buell left garrisons at Nashville and other
important places, and sought to preserve his communications with
Louisville, his base. Weakened by detachments, as well as by the
necessity of a retrograde movement, Bragg should have brought him to
action before he reached Louisville. Defeated, the Federals would have
been driven north of the Ohio to reorganize, and Bragg could have
wintered his army in the fertile and powerful State of Kentucky,
isolating the garrisons in his rear; or, if this was impossible, which
does not appear, he should have concentrated against Buell when the
latter, heavily reenforced, marched south from Louisville to regain
Nashville. But he fought a severe action at Perryville with a fraction
of his army, and retired to Central Tennessee. The ensuing winter, at
Murfreesboro, he contested the field with Rosecrans, Buell's successor,
for three days; and though he won a victory, it was not complete, and
the summer of 1863 found him again at Chattanooga. In the mean time, a
Federal force under General Burnside passed through Cumberland Gap, and
occupied Knoxville and much of East Tennessee, severing the direct line
of rail communication from Richmond to the Southwest.
This condensed account of the Kentucky campaign, extending over many
months, is given because of my personal intimacy with the commander, who
apprised me of his plans. General Bragg died recently in Texas. I have
rarely known a more conscientious, laborious man. Exacting of others, he
never spared himself, but, conquering disease, showed a constant
devotion to duty; and distinguished as were his services in the cause he
espoused, they would have been far greater had he enjoyed the blessing
of health.
Leaving Chattanooga, I proceeded to my destination, western Louisiana,
and crossed the Mississippi at the entrance of Red River. Some miles
below, in the Atchafalaya, I found a steamer, and learned that the
Governor of the State was at Opelousas, which could be reached by
descending the last river to the junction of the Bayou Courtableau,
navigable at high water to the village of Washington, six miles north of
Opelousas. Embarking on the steamer, I reached the junction at sunset,
but the water in Courtableau was too low for steam navigation. As my
family had sought refuge with friends in the vicinity of Washington, I
was anxious to get on, and hired a boat, with four negro oarsmen, to
take me up the bayou, twenty miles. The narrow stream was overarched by
trees shrouded with Spanish moss, the universal parasite of Southern
forests. Heavy rain fell, accompanied by vivid lightning, the flashes of
which enabled us to find our way; and before dawn I had the happiness to
embrace wife and children after a separation of fourteen months. Some
hours later I reached Opelousas, and met the Governor, Thomas O. Moore,
with whom I had served in our State Assembly. This worthy gentleman, a
successful and opulent planter, had been elected Governor in 1860. He
was a man of moderate temper and opinions, but zealously aided the
Confederate cause after his State had joined it. Forced to leave New
Orleans by the approach of Farragut's fleet, he brought my family with
him, and was unwearied in kind attentions.
Melancholy indeed was the condition of the "District of Louisiana," to
the command of which I was assigned.
Confederate authority had virtually ceased with the fall of New Orleans
in the previous April. Fortifications at Barataria, Berwick's Bay, and
other Gulf-coast points had been abandoned, the garrisons withdrawn,
works dismantled, and guns thrown into the water. The Confederate
Government had no soldiers, no arms or munitions, and no money, within
the limits of the district. Governor Moore was willing to aid me to the
extent of his ability, but, deprived by the loss of New Orleans and the
lower river parishes of half the population and three fourths of the
resources of his State, he could do little.
General Magruder had recently been assigned to command in Texas, and
General Holmes, the senior officer west of the Mississippi, was far to
the north in Arkansas. To him I at once reported my arrival and
necessities. Many days elapsed before his reply was received, to the
effect that he could give me no assistance, as he meditated a movement
against Helena on the Mississippi River. Without hope of aid from
abroad, I addressed myself to the heavy task of arousing public
sentiment, apathetic if not hostile from disaster and neglect, and the
creation of some means of defense. Such was the military destitution
that a regiment of cavalry could have ridden over the State, while
innumerable rivers and bayous, navigable a large part of the year, would
admit Federal gunboats to the heart of every parish.
To understand subsequent operations in this region, one must have some
idea of its topography and river systems.
Washed on the east, from the Arkansas line to the Gulf of Mexico, by the
Mississippi, western Louisiana is divided into two not very unequal
parts by the Red River, which, entering the State at its northwestern
angle, near the boundaries of Texas and Arkansas, flows southeast to the
Mississippi through a broad, fertile valley, then occupied by a
population of large slave-owners engaged in the culture of cotton. From
the southern slopes of the Ozark Mountains in Central Arkansas comes the
Washita River to unite with the Red, a few miles above the junction of
the latter with the Mississippi. Preserving a southerly course, along
the eastern foot of the hills, the Washita enters the State nearly a
hundred miles west of the Mississippi, but the westerly trend of the
great river reduces this distance until the waters meet. The alluvion
between these rivers, protected from inundation by levees along the
streams, is divided by many bayous, of which the Tensas, with its branch
the Macon, is the most important. These bayous drain the vast swamps
into the Washita, and, like this river, are in the season of floods open
to steam navigation. Here was one of the great cotton-producing regions
of the South. Estates of 5,000 acres and more abounded, and, with the
numerous slaves necessary to their cultivation, were largely under the
charge of overseers, while the proprietors resided in distant and more
healthy localities. Abundant facilities for navigation afforded by
countless streams superseded the necessity for railways, and but one
line of some eighty miles existed. This extended from Monroe on the
Washita to a point opposite Vicksburg on the Mississippi; but the great
flood of 1862 had broken the eastern half of the line. Finally, the
lower Washita, at Trinity, where it receives the Tensas from the east
and Little River from the west, takes the name of Black River. And it
may be well to add that in Louisiana counties are called parishes, dikes
levees, and streams bayous.
South of the Red River, population and industries change. The first is
largely composed of descendants of French colonists, termed creoles,
with some Spanish intermixed, and the sugar cane is the staple crop,
changing as the Gulf is approached to rice. At the point where the
united Red and Washita Rivers join the Mississippi, which here changes
direction to the east, the Atchafalaya leaves it, and, flowing due south
through Grand Lake and Berwick's Bay, reaches the Gulf at Atchafalaya
Bay, two degrees west of its parent stream, and by a more direct course.
Continuing the line of the Red and Washita, it not only discharges much
of their waters, but draws largely from the Mississippi when this last
is in flood. Midway between the Atchafalaya and the city of New Orleans,
some eighty miles from either point, another outlet of the great river,
the Bayou Lafourche, discharges into the Gulf after passing through a
densely populated district, devoted to the culture of sugar cane and
rice. A large lake, Des Allemands, collects the waters from the higher
lands on the river and bayou, and by an outlet of the same name carries
them to Barataria Bay. Lying many feet below the flood level of the
streams, protected by heavy dikes, with numerous steam-engines for
crushing canes and pumping water, and canals and ditches in every
direction, this region resembles a tropical Holland. At the lower end of
Lake Des Allemands passed the only line of railway in southern
Louisiana, from a point on the west bank of the river opposite New
Orleans to Berwick's Bay, eighty miles. Berwick's Bay, which is but the
Atchafalaya after it issues from Grand Lake, is eight hundred yards
wide, with great depth of water, and soon meets the Gulf in Atchafalaya
Bay. A few miles above the railway terminus at Berwick's there enters
from the west the Teche, loveliest of Southern streams. Navigable for
more than a hundred miles, preserving at all seasons an equal breadth
and depth, so gentle is its flow that it might be taken for a canal, did
not the charming and graceful curves, by which it separates the
undulating prairies of Attakapas from the alluvion of the Atchafalaya,
mark it as the handiwork of Nature. Before the war, the Teche for fifty
miles, from Berwick's Bay to New Iberia, passed through one field of
sugar canes, the fertile and well-cultivated estates succeeding each
other. The mansions of the opulent planters, as well as the villages of
their slaves, were situated on the west bank of the bayou overlooking
the broad, verdant prairie, where countless herds roamed. On the east
bank, the dense forest had given way to fields of luxuriant canes; and
to connect the two parts of estates, floating bridges were constructed,
with openings in the center for the passage of steamers. Stately live
oaks, the growth of centuries, orange groves, and flowers of every hue
and fragrance surrounded the abodes of the _seigneurs_; while within,
one found the grace of the _salon_ combined with the healthy cheeriness
of country life. Abundance and variety of game encouraged field sports,
and the waters, fresh and salt, swarmed with fish. With the sky and
temperature of Sicily, the breezes from prairie and Gulf were as
health-giving as those that ripple the heather on Scotch moors. In all
my wanderings, and they have been many and wide, I can not recall so
fair, so bountiful, and so happy a land.
The upper or northern Teche waters the parishes of St. Landry,
Lafayette, and St. Martin's--the Attakapas, home of the "Acadians." What
the gentle, contented creole was to the restless, pushing American, that
and more was the Acadian to the creole. In the middle of the past
century, when the victories of Wolfe and Amherst deprived France of her
Northern possessions, the inhabitants of Nouvelle Acadie, the present
Nova Scotia, migrated to the genial clime of the Attakapas, where
beneath the flag of the lilies they could preserve their allegiance,
their traditions, and their faith. Isolated up to the time of the war,
they spoke no language but their own _patois_; and, reading and writing
not having come to them by nature, they were dependent for news on their
cures and occasional peddlers, who tempted the women with _chiffons_ and
trinkets. The few slaves owned were humble members of the household,
assisting in the cultivation of small patches of maize, sweet potatoes,
and cotton, from which last the women manufactured the wonderful
Attakapas _cotonnade_, the ordinary clothing of both sexes. Their little
_cabanes_ dotted the broad prairie in all directions, and it was
pleasant to see the smoke curling from their chimneys, while herds of
cattle and ponies grazed at will. Here, unchanged, was the French
peasant of Fenelon and Bossuet, of Louis le Grand and his successor le
Bien-Aime. Tender and true were his traditions of la belle France, but
of France before Voltaire and the encyclopaedists, the Convention and the
Jacobins--ere she had lost faith in all things, divine and human, save
the _bourgeoisie_ and _avocats_. Mounted on his pony, with lariat in
hand, he herded his cattle, or shot and fished; but so gentle was his
nature, that lariat and rifle seemed transformed into pipe and crook of
shepherd. Light wines from the Medoc, native oranges, and home-made
sweet cakes filled his largest conceptions of feasts; and violin and
clarionet made high carnival in his heart.
On an occasion, passing the little hamlet of Grand Coteau, I stopped to
get some food for man and horse. A pretty maiden of fifteen springs,
whose parents were absent, welcomed me. Her lustrous eyes and long
lashes might have excited the envy of "the dark-eyed girl of Cadiz."
Finding her alone, I was about to retire and try my fortune in another
house; but she insisted that she could prepare "monsieur un diner dans
un tour de main," and she did. Seated by the window, looking modestly on
the road, while I was enjoying her repast, she sprang to her feet,
clapped her hands joyously, and exclaimed: "V'la le gros Jean Baptiste
qui passe sur son mulet avec _deux_ bocals. Ah! nous aurons grand bal ce
soir." It appeared that _one_ jug of claret meant a dance, but _two_
very high jinks indeed. As my hostess declined any remuneration for her
trouble, I begged her to accept a pair of plain gold sleeve buttons, my
only ornaments. Wonder, delight, and gratitude chased each other across
the pleasant face, and the confiding little creature put up her rose-bud
mouth. In an instant the homely room became as the bower of Titania, and
I accepted the chaste salute with all the reverence of a subject for his
Queen, then rode away with uncovered head so long as she remained in
sight. Hospitable little maiden of Grand Coteau, may you never have
graver fault to confess than the innocent caress you bestowed on the
stranger!
It was to this earthly paradise, and upon this simple race, that the war
came, like the tree of the knowledge of evil to our early parents.
Some weeks before I reached my new field, General Van Dorn, who
commanded the Confederate forces east of the Mississippi, had
successfully resisted a bombardment of Vicksburg by Federal gunboats,
during which the Confederate ram Arkansas, descending the Yazoo River,
passed through the enemy's fleet, inflicting some damage and causing
much alarm, and anchored under the guns of Vicksburg. To follow up this
success, Van Dorn sent General Breckenridge with a division against
Baton Rouge, the highest point on the river above New Orleans then held
by the Federals, and the Arkansas was to descend to cooeperate in the
attack. Breckenridge reached Baton Rouge at the appointed time,
assaulted, and was repulsed after a severe action; but the Arkansas,
disabled by an accident to her machinery, was delayed, and, learning of
Breckenridge's failure, her commander ran her ashore on the west bank of
the river a few miles above Baton Rouge, and destroyed her.
Strengthening their garrison in this town, the Federals employed many
steamers on the river between it and New Orleans, a hundred and twenty
miles, armed vessels of Farragut's fleet guarding the stream. From time
to time parties of infantry were landed to plunder and worry the
peaceful inhabitants, though after the fall of New Orleans no
Confederate forces had been on that part of the river, and no resistance
was made by the people.
Two days were passed at Opelousas in consultation with Governor Moore,
who transferred to me several small bodies of State troops which he had
organized. Alexandria on the Red River, some seventy-five miles north of
Opelousas, was the geographical center of the State and of steam
navigation, and the proper place for the headquarters of the district.
To escape the intense heat, I rode the distance in a night, and remained
some days at Alexandria, engaged in the organization of necessary staff
departments and in providing means of communication with different parts
of the State. Great distances and the want of railway and telegraph
lines made this last a heavy burden. Without trained officers, my
presence was required at every threatened point, and I was seldom
enabled to pass twenty-four consecutive hours at headquarters; but
Adjutant Surget, of whom mention has been made, conducted the business
of the district with vigor and discretion during my absence.
Subsequently, by using an ambulance in which one could sleep, and with
relays of mules, long distances were rapidly accomplished; and, like the
Irishman's bird, I almost succeeded in being in two places at the same
time.
Leaving Alexandria, I went south to visit the Lafourche and intervening
regions. At Vermilionville, in the parish of Lafayette, thirty miles
south of Opelousas, resided ex-Governor Mouton, a man of much influence
over the creole and Acadian populations, and an old acquaintance.
Desiring his aid to arouse public sentiment, depressed since the fall of
New Orleans, I stopped to see him. Past middle age, he had sent his sons
and kindred to the war, and was eager to assist the cause in all
possible ways. His eldest son and many of his kinsmen fell in battle,
his estate was diminished by voluntary contributions and wasted by
plunder, and he was taken to New Orleans and confined for many weeks;
yet he never faltered in his devotion, and preserved his dignity and
fortitude.
In camp near New Iberia, seven and twenty miles south of Vermilionville,
was Colonel Fournet, with a battalion of five companies raised in the
parish, St. Martin's. The men were without instruction, and inadequately
armed and equipped. Impressing on Fournet and his officers the
importance of discipline and instruction, and promising to supply them
with arms, I proceeded to the residence of Leclerc Fusilier, in the
parish of St. Mary's, twenty miles below New Iberia. Possessor of great
estates, and of a hospitable, generous nature, this gentleman had much
weight in his country. His sons were in the army, and sixty years had
not diminished his energy nor his enthusiasm. He desired to serve on my
staff as volunteer aide, promising to join me whenever fighting was to
be done; and he kept his promise. In subsequent actions on the Teche and
Red River, the first gun seemed the signal for the appearance of Captain
Fusilier, who, on his white pony, could be seen where the fight was the
thickest, leading on or encouraging his neighbors. His corn bins, his
flocks and herds, were given to the public service without stint; and no
hungry, destitute Confederate was permitted to pass his door. Fusilier
was twice captured, and on the first occasion was sent to Fortress
Monroe, where he, with fifty other prisoners from my command, was
embarked on the transport Maple Leaf for Fort Delaware. Reaching the
capes of Chesapeake at nightfall, the prisoners suddenly attacked and
overpowered the guard, ran the transport near to the beach in Princess
Anne County, Virginia, landed, and made their way to Richmond, whence
they rejoined me in Louisiana. Again taken, Fusilier escaped, while
descending the Teche on a steamer, by springing from the deck to seize
the overhanging branch of a live oak. The guard fired on him, but
darkness and the rapid movement of the steamer were in his favor, and he
got off unhurt.
I have dwelt somewhat on the characters of Mouton and Fusilier, not only
because of their great devotion to the Confederacy, but because there
exists a wide-spread belief that the creole race has become effete and
nerveless. In the annals of time no breed has produced nobler specimens
of manhood than these two; and while descendants of the French colonists
remain on the soil of Louisiana, their names and characters should be
reverenced as are those of Hampden and Sidney in England.
To Berwick's Bay, a hundred and seventy-five miles from Alexandria.
Here, on the eastern shore, was the terminus of the New Orleans and
Opelousas railroad. A deep, navigable arm of the bay, called Bayou
Boeuf, flows east of the station, which is on the island fronting the
bay proper. Some engines and plant had been saved from the general wreck
at New Orleans, and the line was operated from the bay to Lafourche
crossing, thirty miles. The intervening territory constitutes the parish
of Terrebonne, with fertile, cultivated lands along the many bayous, and
low swamps between. From Lafourche crossing to Algiers, opposite New
Orleans, is fifty miles; and, after leaving the higher ground adjacent
to the Lafourche, the line plunges into swamps and marshes, impassable
except on the embankment of the line itself. Midway of the above points,
the Bayou des Allemands, outlet of the large lake of the same name, is
crossed; and here was a Federal post of some two hundred men with two
field guns. On the west bank of the Lafourche, a mile or two above the
railway crossing, and thirty-two miles below Donaldsonville, where the
bayou leaves the Mississippi, lies the town of Thibodeaux, the most
considerable place of this region. Navigable for steamers, whenever the
waters of its parent river are high, restrained from inundation by
levees on both banks, the Lafourche flows through the fertile and
populous parishes of Assumption and Lafourche, and, after a sinuous
course of some ninety miles, reaches the Gulf to the west of Barataria
Bay. Above Thibodeaux there were no bridges, and communication between
the opposite banks was kept up by ferries.
One or two companies of mounted men, armed with fowling pieces, had been
organized under authority from Governor Moore, and Colonel Waller's
battalion of mounted riflemen had recently arrived from Texas. These
constituted the Confederate army in this quarter.