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CHAPTER XIV.

EXPEDITION TO THE COAST OF TEXAS - A STORM AT SEA - ARRIVAL AT BRAZOS DE SANTIAGO - IN MISTAKE WE SHELL THE MEXICAN TOWN OF BAGDAD - DISEMBARK AT POINT ISABEL - MEN DROWNED - REVOLUTIONS AT MATAMORAS - EXPEDITION AND CAPTURE OF THE WORKS ON MUSTANG ISLAND - ON DETACHED SERVICE - EXPEDITION AND CAPTURE OF MADISONVILLE - ACTIVITY OF COTTON SPECULATORS - GEN. BANKS' RED RIVER EXPEDITION - DISASTERS CAUSED BY CAVALRY BLUNDERS AND COTTON DEALERS - FAILURE OF THE CAMPAIGN - RETURN OF GEN. BANKS.

WE remained at Carrollton until October 23d, when Gen. Banks' preparations for a campaign on the Gulf Coast of Texas being completed, our own and the 4th division of the 13th, and a portion of the 19th corps em barked on vessels - the 20th Iowa and 20th Wisconsin being put (or rather packed) on board the T. A. Scott, a vessel of the largest class. The fleet consisted of sixteen large vessels, and many schooners, all heavily loaded with troops, munitions of war, and provisions, under convoy of gunboats.

On the 27th we sailed through Southwest-Pass, and came to anchor outside the bar to await the arrival of Gen. Banks, who joined us on the 29th when we at once went to sea. Immediately on leaving our anchorage the vessel began to be tossed about in the waves, which was

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soon followed by sea-sickness, and the scene presented on our crowded decks may be imagined. The sensations produced by this disease are unpleasant in the extreme, and may be best described by saying, that "in the first stages a man fears he will die, and in the second regrets that he didn't!"

The wind, which had blown steadily from the north, on the 30th increased to a gale, and our vessel labored and strained in such a manner as to produce fears of a shipwreck. A schooner we had in tow, loaded with provisions, broke loose and went adrift - one of the seamen was swept overboard and lost, and with a crash one of our masts suddenly "went by the board." All for a time was confusion on board, and the shouting of the ship's officers, howling of the wind, snapping of ropes and rigging, and roaring of the waves, which made almost "clean breaches" over our decks, told plainly enough that we had encountered a storm at sea. The spectacle, aside from our sea-sick men, was grand, of course, but we didn't enjoy it - especially Major THOMPSON, who lay in his hammock below, suffering also from sea-sickness, but with determined bravery seeking relief in an energetic abuse of the man who wrote "A life on the ocean wave," etc., whom he indignantly characterized as a - "man without taste." By slightly altering our course, the schooner we had lost was picked up, but again broke loose. After again overhauling her she was found to be in a sinking condition, when her crew were taken off, and she was abandoned. Some of the

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other vessels of the fleet fared worse than our own, being compelled to throw overboard mules, provisions and ordnance, to escape being wrecked. The wind subsided somewhat about sunset, and the fleet, - which had been dispersed by the storm, again united, but many of the schooners were found to have been lost.

On the 1st of November we came in sight of land, and in the evening lay at anchor off the bar of Brazos de Santiago. On the following morning our vessel, by order of Gen. BANKS, ran in and opened fire on the Mexican town of Bagdad, a small village at the mouth of the Rio Grande. After a few shots had been fired, the French flag was hoisted in the town, and we withdrew for further instructions. On reporting back to the flag-ship, the commander of our vessel was informed that he had committed a blunder - having fired on the wrong town - and was again dispatched, this time with more definite instructions, to "feel" the Texan side of the river. We accordingly approached the coast in the vicinity of Point Isabel, and again opened with shell - this time on another village, opposite Bagdad - and had the satisfaction of seeing a number of confederates leave hurriedly in the direction of Brownsville.

The 19th Iowa then landed, and moved a short distance inland, and the remainder of the forces made preparations to disembark on the Island of Brazos, in surf-boats. This undertaking proved a failure - the first trip resulting in the boats being capsized in the surf, and the drowning of two men belonging to Company

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"F" of our regiment with several others of the 20th Wisconsin. The captain of the vessel then abandoned further attempts, weighed anchor and ran out to the fleet, where our regiment was transferred to a small coast steamer (the Wm. Bagley) and finally succeeded in landing near Point Isabel, in vicinity of Gen. TAYLOR'S old commissary depot, established during the early part of the Mexican war, and on the following day were carried across to Clarksville.

Gen. BANKS, with some of our forces, moved up to Brownsville, distant thirty-eight miles, and after communication between our camps and that place was established, our attention was occupied by daily rumors received, detailing events then transpiring in the town of Matamoras, where revolutions were said to be of daily occurrence. Three had already taken place since our arrival, and others, according to report, were being inaugurated. On the first day of our appearance on the coast, the Mexican Governor (Ruiez) was deposed and imprisoned, and the office usurped by another, whose name we could not learn; on the second day the usurper was shot, and Ruiez reinstated, and on the third day the fluctuating fortunes of the unlucky Ruiez again changed, and he was compelled to take refuge in Brownsville to save his life. The Governor of the State was then sent for in haste, and pending his arrival, Gen. Cortinas, the military commandant, assumed authority. These revolutions, however, were attended by but little bloodshed - only one or two men being killed in effecting them. But

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great excitement existed as usual on such occasions, which from the law of sympathy finally extended to our forces on the opposite side of the river, and Gen. BANKS on application of our Minister at that place, threw part of the 20th Wisconsin across, under command of Col. BERTRAM, to restore order, but the tumult having subsided it was supposed the body politic had not yet arrived at a condition requiring phlebotomy, and they were withdrawn.

All these commotions, revolutions, and excitements, in a great measure sprung from the mistake made by the commander of our vessel in firing on the town of Bagdad, then in possession of the French, which the Mexicans at Matamoras interpreted as a demonstration in favor of the Liberals, and forthwith proceeded to adopt "revolutionizing" as a means best calculated to give expression to their feelings.

This state of affairs at Matamoras, however, culminated on the 19th in a general " hree-cornered" fight, between Cortinas' men, Mexican "greasers" and French residents, which having terminated matters assumed a more quiet attitude.

Gen. BANKS returned from Brownsville on the 13th, accompanied by a battalion of cavalry composed of loyal Texans which had been recruited and organized since his arrival, and sailed for New Orleans on the following day, leaving Gen. DANA in command.

On the 15th the 20th Iowa, in company with the 13th Maine, embarked on the steamship "Planter," and sailed

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up the coast, accompanied by other vessels, which, however, left us during the same night. Late in the evening of the following day we came to anchor, and both regiments, with two pieces of artillery, disembarked in small boats on the southern point of Mustang Island. After landing, we immediately started up the beach, the 13th Maine in advance, while our men took charge of the battery - performing the duty of artillery horses. As this was the first occasion on which they had acted in this capacity, the duty was found extremely laborious - the route of march being over loose sand.

The march was continued until 11 o'clock next day, when we came in sight of the rebel works, consisting of three large guns mounted behind sand banks, and so placed as to command the entrance to Aransas Bay. One of the vessels had preceded us, and at the time of our arrival was vigorously shelling the works. Preparations were at once made for a charge by the 13th Maine, which was gallantly done at a "right-shoulder-shift," a few moments after the rebel garrison had hoisted a white flag, and resulted in the wounding of an old man who had come outside the works and in an unmistakably friendly manner was awaiting their approach.

The capture consisted of the works, 85 rifles, 3 pieces of artillery, and 100 prisoners.

On Jan. 23d, 1864, Maj. Gen. HERRON, who had been absent since October, returned and assumed command of the post at Brownsville, and Maj. Gen. DANA, temporarily commanding the corps, removed his head-

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quarters to Pass Cavallo. Gen. DANA was relieved however after a few days by Gen. E. O. C. ORD, the permanent commander of the corps. Gen. DANA then assumed command of the forces in the field. Our regiment, with the exception of one company, was left as a garrison at Post Aransas - Company "G" being detached as Provost Guard at Gen. DANA'S headquarters. The other troops were distributed at various points along the coast, where they quietly prepared to await the developments of another expedition by the remainder of our own and 19th corps, which was to co-operate with us under the immediate command of Gen. BANKS, by ascending Red River.

At the time our division embarked for Texas, I was detached by order of Major-General J. J. REYNOLDS, commanding Defences New Orleans, and assigned to command of a camp in the city where men of the 13th corps discharged from hospital, and stragglers, could be collected and forwarded to their regiments. I continued on this duty until December 24th, 1863, when I received orders to arm and equip four hundred of the most efficient men then in camp and accompany Col. W. K. KIMBALL, of the 12th Maine, on an expedition against Madisonville, La. We embarked the following day on the cars of the Ponchartrain Railroad, and proceeded to the Lake, six miles distant from the city, where we were detained from various causes until January 2d, 1864, when the entire command, consisting of the 12th Maine, 9th Connecticut, one battalion 2d Louisiana Cavalry, one

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section 16th Ohio Battery, and my own detachment were put on board transports, and at once sailed.

The night set in with a cold wind, accompanied by sleet and rain, and being exposed to the storm on the upper deck without shelter, we came near perishing during the night. When morning dawned we found our vessel, the Kate Dale, hard a-ground near shore, with no abatement of the storm. During the day all the steam vessels composing our fleet made ineffectual efforts to pull her off, and late in the evening a joint effort by the entire fleet, assisted by three gunboats, alike proved unsuccessful, when further efforts were deferred until next morning. During the night, however, the wind changed to south-west, and the tide rose sufficient to float us off. On the following morning we proceeded on our course, arriving at the mouth of the Chafunktee River about 11 o'clock A. M., when the gunboats took a position in advance, and after shelling the woods in the vicinity we proceeded up the river towards Madisonville, which was six miles distant from the Lake. On approaching the town a white flag was seen displayed at the landing, when I was ordered to disembark my detachment and ascertain if there were any Confederate forces in the neighborhood. After landing, a skirmish line was formed under command of Capt. H. B. DOOLITTLE, of the 20th Iowa, which advanced through the town, capturing a few prisoners and driving a small force of rebels back on the road leading to Covington. We advanced some two miles on that road, with slight skirmishing, momentarily expecting to

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come in contact with a larger force whom we supposed this small one was falling back on. But no others being encountered, as night had set in we halted and made dispositions to hold the ground already gained until the remainder of our troops disembarked. During the night one platoon of cavalry landed, and a small squad were sent out to assist us on picket duty, whom we three out as videttes in the direction of Covington.

As day dawned next morning we were startled by volleys of musketry, and in a few moments the cavalry squad came dashing back in great panic, and reported a large force of the enemy advancing on us. After despatching a messenger with the information to headquarters, our men were deployed in the timber on either side of the road, and we anxiously awaited the approach of the enemy. In the meantime Col. KIMBALL, on being notified of the affair, promptly hurried to our assistance with two pieces of artillery supported by the 12th Maine. The guns were planted on the road in our rear, and in a position better calculated to rake us than the enemy; as the rebels, however, declined approaching within range, we escaped the fire from this battery.

Scouting parties of cavalry were sent in various directions daily, by means of which a good knowledge of the country was soon gained. The locality not having before been visited by federal troops, no efforts had been made by the planters to secrete or destroy their cotton, and large quantities of it was found on the plantations. This event, however, was not unprovided for, as our expedition was

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accompanied as usual by cotton speculators, who, although not so numerous as on some similar occasions, made up in activity and zeal their lack of numbers, and the landing soon presented an appearance which would have done no discredit to New Orleans in the palmiest days of "King Cotton." This business was scarcely begun before it met with a check - the owners preferring to consign their cotton to the flames rather than see it pass into the hands of these sharks, who not only robbed them but the government of the United States, and conflagrations were soon blazing in all directions over the country. When this incendiarism was once inaugurated it continued to spread, until no kind of property was exempt; men fired their cotton, grain-stacks and mills, seeming to contemplate the work of destruction with feelings of delight, believing they were thus damaging our government more than themselves. This idea no doubt originated in the fact that there was always more activity displayed by the hosts of legalized plunderers accompanying military expeditions in this Department than by the military themselves, which usually gave the troops the appearance of being simply an escort for the protection of the speculators.

There were several large saw-mills situated in the vicinity of Covington, on the Ponchatoulas River, seven miles distant from Madisonville, where a large amount of lumber was stored, and which latter Gen. BANKS was anxious to secure, for military and other purposes, at New Orleans; but when our intention to remove it was made known, both the lumber and mills were burned.

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On the 4th of Feb. Gens. MCGINNIS and GROVER, with the third Division of the 13th army corps arrived and we were ordered back to New Orleans, where we arrived on the 7th.

On our return we found much commotion among the troops in the vicinity, as the great Red River expedition was being organized, and the army was concentrating at Brashear City and Franklin. This was to be the crowning blow, by which not only the confederate army in the State was to be annihilated, but a permanent State Government organized, and civil law once more established. All were sanguine of success - grand reviews paraded the streets by day, and splendid illuminations of fireworks decked the heavens at night; magnificent fetes and sumptuous banquets were given; the evening air was vocal with sounds of music by immense brass bands on the streets, and the grandeur of Gen. BANKS' military genius was rehearsed in songs at places of public entertainment. Enthusiasm was at its height, and who will be so uncharitable as to censure Gen. BANKS, if, under such overwhelming ovations, he too should become infected, and yield to the weakness of joining in the universal outpouring of enthusiasm in honor of his own greatness! But with all his vanity, Gen. BANKS proved himself unselfish at least, by allowing his family to some extent, to share his honors - even permitting his youthful daughter to occupy a lofty seat on the Clay Monument, while the gallant DUDLEY passed his cavalry

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brigade in review before her - the General himself standing at her feet, weeping in excess of gratified pride.

As spring approached, however, these scenes of festivity were succeeded by the hurry and bustle of preparations for a speedy departure on the great mission of reorganization.

Early in March Gen. BANKS joined his army at Brashear City, and at once put it in motion towards Franklin, which was reached without opposition; here a delay was necessary in order to allow him time to issue a proclamation and hold an election for State officers. The pause here was so well improved by the cotton buyers who accompanied the expedition in droves, that 1,600 bales were secured and stored, to be taken back to New Orleans on their return. This early success gave promise of a brilliant harvest in the future, when the army should enter the rich cotton districts of the Red River, and they forthwith commenced seizing all the wagons on the route in order to be able to transport their cotton to shipping points on the river. These cotton-buyers - more numerous than "money-changers in the temple," or ants on a crumb - literally covered every movement of troops in the Department. No expedition was permitted to move - none planned, or considered complete in its appointments, without them. They hung about Gen. BANKS' every movement like wolves around a carcass. The result was that in a few days their train nearly equalled that of the army, which was an unusual large one. Their manner of buying cotton was peculiar, and I will

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venture to give it. Each firm consisted of three partners, and each partner performed his own special duty; one traveled with the advance of the army, whose duty consisted in looking up such cotton as was not branded by the mark of the confederate government and marked it as the property of the firm. The next gave his attention to such as had been seized by our Government Agents as property of the confederate government, and branded as property of our own; he transferred this to the firm by crossing the mark "U. S.," and making his own beneath it. The third attended to collecting and loading the bales thus purchased on the wagons. No doubt this systematic robbery would have been suppressed had it come to the knowledge of Gen. BANKS, but he was too much occupied with the weightier matters of politics to give it his attention, and his staff probably were interested to some extent in the speculation themselves.

Fort "Derusha" was reached, and after a sharp engagement captured, by troops of the 13th corps, when another pause was made, and another proclamation issued, followed by another election. Gen. LEE, commanding the cavalry force of the expedition, whose counsels, to a great extent in military matters, governed the movements of the army, now injudiciously moved his huge transportation trains in advance of the infantry, in order, as he said, that it might be "under his immediate protection;" by some shrewd strategy on the part of the cotton dealers, their wagons also gained an ad-

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vanced position. By this arrangement the cavalry and infantry were so separated as to be entirely out of supporting distance, and in case an attack should be made on the cavalry by a superior force of the enemy, these wagon trains formed an impassable barrier against their own retreat or assistance reaching them from the infantry.

In due course of time the army reached and occupied Alexandria, with slight opposition, where another proclamation was issued, followed by another election, and immense success in the cotton department of the expedition. Bulletins, giving glowing accounts of the triumphant progress of the army, were transmitted daily to New Orleans, scattered broadcast over the city, and continued to heighten the public expectation of its ultimate success. The rebel General Taylor, however, in the meantime was busy concentrating his army at Shreveport, and closely watching the progress of Gen. BANKS' military political movements, determined on the first favorable opportunity to check his progress. The indiscretion of Gen. LEE in interposing his wagon trains between the cavalry and infantry forces furnished the rebel general this opportunity, and he at once took advantage of it.

The short ineffectual struggle of the cavalry, who were almost annihilated - the capture and burning of their own and the cotton trains - the rout of the 19th corps, which was pulverized, and slaughter of the gallant 13th who heroically interposed themselves between the

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enemy and our panic-stricken cavalry and the 19th - fighting manfully against ten times their own number until nearly two-thirds were either killed or wounded - has become history, and need not be repeated here in detail. The carnage was terrible - the disaster irreparable - and the rout complete.

With the remnant of this once splendid army, now thoroughly demoralized, broken into fragments, and pursued by a relentless enemy, Gen. BANKS reached, and by the aid of a bridge of boats crossed the Atchafalaya, while Gen. A. J. SMITH paused at Yellow Bayou, and as the rebel army, flushed with victory, came up, attacked them with such fury that their pursuit was soon changed to flight.

The first intimation of the disaster received at New Orleans was the arrival of Gen. BANKS and his crest-fallen military advisers, with a large number of wounded officers. The revulsion of feeling caused by this totally unlooked for result, seemed at first to paralyze the public mind with astonishment, but this feeling gradually settled down into sullen murmurs of censure by those who had previously been loudest in their praise of the unfortunate General.

The agony of the unfortunate cotton speculators over their losses was extreme, but excited no compassion, as it was well known much of the disaster was attributable to their presence.