were well enough and anxious to accompany me to Opelousas, and I have brought them here. The remaining 14 I have paroled. Altogether I made 24 prisoners, not including the captain of the Uncle Tommy. Before leaving the junction I examined the week of fur steamboats. The water having risen after the rains of Saturday night and Sunday morning, 18th and 19th instant, I was unable to see any names on the boats, or the guns reported to have been left on the Darby. Their smoke-stacks and part of their machinery only were above water. From all the information I received I have no doubt of their being the Darby, Louise, Blue Hammock, and the Corcket. The Uncle Tommy is burned higher up in the Bayou Teche, and the wreck of this boat is high enough out of water to see her name. Cargoes of beef, rum, sugar, and commissary stores, cloth, uniforms, and large quantities of arms and ammunition were destroyed in these boats. Some barges took off portions of the cargoes of ammunition and arms from these steamboats before they were set on fire. I passed the charred remains of two or three barges in the Bayou Teche and I found by the roadside empty musket boxes and large quantities of shot, salt, some new cavalry sabers, and a few barrels of oil. I think there must be a valuable portion of the cargoes of the destroyed steamboats in the houses and wood along the banks of the Teche and in the vicinity of the junction, and possibly some barge hidden in the Teche. At the junction there are a thousand barrels of salt, which I left uninjured. They are close to the bayou and might easily be sent down the Teche. On the march from Breaux Bridge to the junction I seized a thousand barrels of corn in husk belonging to the enemy, it having been brought there for his cavalry. Being unable to delay to procure wagons for it, and having no particular instructions how to act under the circumstances, I took the responsibility of returning to the pooper parties, from whom I took forage for the horses of the regiment and battery, the quantity they merited. I gave 300 barrels to Rev. M. Bernard, cure of the parish, for the poor of the surrounding country, who are suffering greatly. The balance (about 400 barrels) I ordered stored in a crib on M. Camean's plantation, awaiting disposition.

I halted on the evening of the 20th instant within 7 miles of Opelousas and bivouacked for the night. I passed bridge on the Teche about midway between Opelousas and the junction. It had not been destroyed. The bridge over the Teche at the junction is destroyed. I arrived at camp, beyond Opelousas, and rejoined my brigade at 1 p. m. on the 21st instant. The section rejoined its battery.

I have the honor to remain, your most obedient servant,

A. POWER GALLWAY,

Major, Comdg. One hundred and seventy-third N. Y. State Vols.

Lieutenant PETER FRENCH, A. A. A. G.,

Third Division.

No. 18. Reports of Lieutenant Col. Sidney A. Bean, Fourth Wisconsin Infantry, of expedition to Plaquemine and Boyce's Plantation.

HDQRS. FOURTH WISCONSIN VOLUNTEERS,
On the Plaquemine Brule Bayou, 12 miles out, April 22, 1863.

GENERAL: The guide, Drexel, thinks the information I have gathered of great importance, and insists that the enemy cannot make his escape from his present position.