Alexandria and a line of wagon transportation from the steamers below to those above the falls. This was a departure from the plan of the campaign, which did not contemplate a post or depot at any point on Red River, and involved the necessity of leaving a division at Alexandria for the purpose of protecting the depot, transports, and supplies. Brigadier General C. Grover was placed in command of the post, and his division left for its defense. This reduced the force of the advancing column about 3,000 men.

While at Alexandria, on the 21st instant, a movement was organized against the enemy posted at Henderson's Hill, 25 miles in advance. The expedition consisted of three brigades of General A. J. Smith's command and a brigade of cavalry of the Nineteenth Corps, under command of Colonel Lucas, of the Sixteenth Indiana Volunteers, the whole under command of Brigadier-General Mower, of the Sixteenth Corps. The enemy was surprised, losing 250 prisoners, 200 horses, and 4 guns with their caissons. Colonel H. B. Sargent, of my staff, was severely wounded in this action, and disabled from service during the campaign. This affair reflected the highest credit upon the officers and men engaged. Anticipating by a few days the passage of the gun-boats, the army marched from Alexandria for Natchitoches, 80 miles distant by land, reaching that point on the 2nd and 3rd of April. The enemy continued his retreat, skirmishing sharply with the advanced guard, but offering no serious resistance to our advance. The shortest and only practicable road from Natchitoches to Shreveport was the stage road through Pleasant Hill and Mansfield (distance 100 miles), through a barren, sandy country, with little water and less forage, the greater portion an unbroken pine forest.

A reconnaissance from Natchitoches on the 2nd of April, under command of General Lee, discovered the enemy in force at Pleasant Hill, 36 miles distant, and established the fact that a portion of Green's command had arrived from Texas, and were then confronting us. Prisoners captured from Price's command indicated (what had been feared from the loss of time at Alexandria) a concentration of the entire available force of the enemy, numbering, according to the statements of prisoners and intercepted letters, about 25,000 men, with seventy-six guns. The river was perceptibly falling, and the larger gun-boats were unable to pass Grand Ecore. The troops, under command of General A. J. Smith, had hitherto moved in transports by the river, now marched by land from Natchitoches, with the exception of one division of the Seventeenth Corps, 2,500 men, under Brigadier General T. Kilby Smith, which, by order of General A. J. Smith, continued its movements by the river, in company with the fleet, for the protection of the transports. The arrangement of land transportation for this portion of the column, the replenishing of supply trains from the transports, and the distribution of rations to the troops were made at this point, but the fleet was unable to ascend the river until the 7th of April. The condition of the river would have justified the suspension of the movement altogether at either point, except for the anticipation of such a change as to render it navigable. Upon this subject the counsel of the naval officers was implicitly followed.

On the 4th of April, Colonel O. P. Gooding, commanding a brigade of cavalry engaged upon a reconnaissance north of Red River, encountered Harrison's command, 1,500 strong, in which the enemy was defeated with considerable loss. Our loss was about 40 in killed,