In accordance with your orders I sent the major portion of my company, under Lieutenant Barber, to Indian Village, leaving Plaquemine soon after noon January 26. His report of his doings previous to my own arrival at Indian Village was sent to you yesterday. Remaining in Plaquemine until the morning of the 27th, I left there with fifteen men and seized ships at Mr. Kleinpeter's and Madam Banty's. I had them taken down to the mouth of the Bayou Jacob, where, leaving the horses and the remainder of the men, I went up the Bayou about two miles, but without success. I found the Bayou blocked with trees, and concluded it useless to go farther; I however found and destroyed four skiffs. At a house I found two double-barrel shotguns and a Remington pistol. The occupant of the house, a young man, gave his name as Joseph Langlois; said that the pistol had been left there a few days before by a Confederate soldier, deserter. As I knew that one such had come within our lines within a short time, and as the young man told a very plausible and connected story regarding his antecedents, I concluded to leave him and take the arms. The guns being very much out of repair and rusted badly, I threw them into the Bayou as being of no value to the provost-marshal and uselessly loading the horses. Having accomplished this, I returned to my horses and continued on toward Indian Village, where I arrived between 3 and 4 p. m. You will therefore see that it was my party that your scout reported as near the Devil's Elbow. Stopping at Indian Village long enough to hear what he had been about, as soon as it was dark we proceeded, dismounted, to The Park, where, after a careful search, I threw out pickets and quartered my men for the night. The next morning I found two skiff, and crossed Bayou Plaquemine with a dozen men. I searched the swamps from here to about halfway to the village. I found by the tracks that the rebels had gone toward Grossetete by two paths, one deep in the swamp and not approaching Bayou Plaquemine till over a mile above here, and the other skirting the Bayou all the way. The tracks showed that not more than five or six men had traveled the latter path, while the former gave signs of over twenty. This path was very bad to follow. It required us to wade over knee-deep for many hundred feet. In the afternoon Lieutenant Barber, by my orders with twenty men, crossed at the village and proceeded up the Grossetete road about a mile, finding where the rebels had re-entered the road from the swamp, but seeing no one. I ascertained yesterday how Williams crossed Grand River. Having crossed lower Grand some distance from The Park, he reached upper Grand near where Bayou Plaquemine comes into it. Here he found the flat by which the party of men and young ladies came from Grand Coteau, who reached Plaquemine on the afternoon of the 26th between 6 and 7 in the morning, and the flat-boat had been there but a short time. He crossed his men in this flat, making his horses swim. This morning I again crossed the Bayou with a small party and commenced where I left off yesterday; continued up as far as Lieutenant Barber went. The rebels after waiting at the bank of the Bayou, as I mentioned before, again struck back into the swamp, which they did not leave till some distance above the village. I saw both ends of this path, but after following it in nearly waist-deep I concluded not to follow it all the way. This afternoon I sent Lieutenant Barber, with twenty mounted men, down as far as the second Le Blanc, about four miles this side of Roan. He found that Williams passed through the Bayou Goula road and crossed lower Grand near Hyde's, this side of Toffie's. This is all the information I have been able to collect. The