alry and artillery. Leaving three regiments of infantry, one section of the battery, and the cavalry to occupy the attention of the enemy in front, he took two regiments of infantry, one section of the battery, and the Sixteenth Indiana Mounted Infantry and made a detour to the left under cover of the darkness and came in on their rear. Here, capturing a courier who had been sent from the hill with dispatches for General Dick Taylor, he succeeded in obtaining the countersign, and learning from the dispatches that there was only one regiment of cavalry and one battery of artillery on the hill he moved forward and completely surprised the whole force, capturing them in detail at their camp-fires without a shot being fired. The regiment was the Second Louisiana (rebel) Cavalry, with horses and equipments, and Edgar's battery of light artillery, of four pieces, all complete, the prisoners numbering 262. The detachment making the capture had marched that day over 30 miles through rain and mud. On the morning of the 22nd, General Mower returned with his command to Alexandria.

On the 26th, General Banks having arrived, I was directed by him to march my command to Cotile Landing and await the arrival of our transports, it being considered dangerous to attempt to take them over the falls with the troops on them. I arrived with the command at Cotile Landing on the 28th; embarked the troops as the transports arrived, and on the 2nd of April proceeded up the river, with orders to report to Major-General Banks at Grand Ecore. Arrived at Grand Escore on the 3rd, and was ordered by Major-General Banks to be in readiness to leave for Shreveport by land on the 7th instant, and to send the transports with all surplus subsistence stores, baggage, &c., with sufficient guard, by water to the mouth of Loggy Bayou; at that point to await further orders. I accordingly detached Brigadier General Thomas Kilby Smith with his Seventeenth Corps for duty with the boats, and directed him to consult with Admiral Porter as to the time and manner of starting. I left with the two divisions of the Sixteenth Corps on the 7th instant, bringing up the rear of the land column. General T. Kilby Smith also left on the same day with the transports, and his report of this part of the expedition is herewith submitted. Moving toward Pleasant Hill in the rear of the land column, the trains of the cavalry, Thirteenth, and Sixteenth Corps, all being in front of me, and the roads very bad, my progress was consequently slow. We kept well closed up, however, on the train, and encamped on the night of the 7th about 8 miles from Grand Ecore. Moving forward at daylight on the morning of the 8th, we encamped at night about 2 miles from Pleasant Hill, having marched about 21 miles. Heard heavy cannonading in front during the afternoon, and sent forward word to General Banks my exact position, and also stated that if he desired I could pass the train with a portion or all of my command. Soon after I learned that the cause of the cannonading was an attack by the enemy upon the cavalry and the Thirteenth Army Corps, which were in the advance about 8 miles beyond Pleasant Hill, and whom the enemy had repulsed and totally routed, capturing their artillery and wagons, and with a loss of nearly one-half the Thirteenth Corps, and that the enemy were only checked by night and the Nineteenth Corps. Ordering my men to bivouac upon their arms, and throwing out pickets to their flanks and rear, we rested until morning, when, by permission of General Banks, I moved forward to Pleasant Hill and formed line of battle across the Mansfield road. During the night and morning the re-