Lane. Owing to obstructions in the river the gun-boat fleet did not arrive until after the fort was captured. Of the artillery captured, four pieces were in the fort and six in a water battery on the bank of the river, about 400 yards from the fort, connected with it by a covered way. Two of the guns in the water battery were casemated, and the casemate plated with a double thickness of railroad iron. The fleet arrived during the night, and the gun-boats passed up the river. The artillery captured, with the exception of two 6-pounder iron guns, was taken on board the several boats of the fleet. All ordnance and ordnance stores captured have been taken up and accounted for by Lieutenant J. B. Pannes, Seventeenth New York Infantry, acting ordnance officer.

On the evening of the 15th instant I sent Brigadier-General Mower, with the First and Third Divisions, Sixteenth Army Corps, on transports to occupy Alexandria, retaining at Fort De Russy General Thomas Kilby Smith's command, of the Seventeenth Army Corps, for the purpose of dismantling the fort and destroying effectually the magazines and casemates. This was accomplished on the 15th, 16th, and 17th, by tearing down the revetments on the inside of the parapet and digging ditches across the parapet, so that, from the nature of the soil of which it was constructed, the first rain-storm would nearly level it. The magazines, which were bomb-proof and four in number, were totally destroyed by blowing them up with a portion of the powder captured. The casemates were destroyed by piling wood under them and burning them down, the iron bending with the heat. Before they were burned the gun-boat Essex tested their strength with a 100-pounder Parrott at a distance of about 300 yards, firing three shots. The projectile in each case cut through the iron plating, but was stopped by the oak backing. The two 6-pounder iron guns were also destroyed by bursting. On the morning of the 18th, I left with the remainder of my command for Alexandria, at which place we arrived about 5 p. m. same day.

General Mower, upon his arrival on the 16th, found the place had been evacuated but a few hours before, the enemy retreating toward Natchitoches. He took possession of three pieces of artillery and some ordnance stores, which the enemy had not time to remove. My instructions being to report to Major-General Banks at this place i disembarked my command and went into camp, he not having arrived. On the morning of the 19th, 100 cavalry, sent forward with dispatches from the advance of the land column of General Banks' command, arrived. On the 20th, the Cavalry Division of his command, under command of Brigadier General A. L. Lee, arrived and went into camp, and the same day Brigadier-General Stone, chief of staff, with a portion of the staff of Major-General Banks, came by river. Learning that a portion of General Dick Taylor's command were in the vicinity of Henderson's Hill, on Bayou Rapides, about 22 miles from Alexandria, on the direct road to Natchitoches, I directed Brigadier-General Mower to take the First Division, Sixteenth Army Corps, one regiment of infantry and one battery of light artillery from the Third Division, Sixteenth Army Corps, and the First Brigade, Cavalry Division, of General Lee's command, and proceed to Henderson's Hill, dislodge the enemy from that position, and send forward his cavalry to Red River, clearing all the country between Bayou Rapides and Red River. Leaving Alexandria on the morning of the 21st, General Mower reached the vicinity of Henderson's Hill the same night and found it occupied by the enemy with both cav-