May 15.-The march was continued on the Marksville road. The rebels were posted at the entrance to Avoyelles Prairie with ten pieces of artillery, but were driven slowly back during the day by thee First and Third Brigades through the village of Marksville, when they opened a heavy artillery fire on the advance, checking it.

May 16.-The First and Third Brigades advanced cautiously, skirmishing with the enemy, who were found in line of battle near the village of Mansura. The infantry forces advancing to them, they were soon forced to retire. General Arnold was ordered to the rear, where the Fourth and Fifth Brigades, supported by a detachment of the Thirteenth Army Corps, was stationed. The rebels opened with artillery on the Fifth Brigade near Marksville, but soon retired toward Cheneyville.

May 17.-The rebels attacked the Fourth Brigade near Moreauville, and heavy skirmishing continued throughout the day, in which the Fourth and Fifth Brigades lost several men killed, wounded, and missing. The First and Third Brigades having arrived at Simsport, the Fourth and Fifth encamped near Yellow Bayou.

May 18.-The rebels threatened the rear guard, when Brigadier General A. J. Smith, with detachments from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps and the Fourth Cavalry Brigade, moved out to meet them. A desperate fight ensued, in which the rebels were defeated, the cavalry behaving with great gallantry and losing heavily.

May 19.-The trains crossed the Atchafalaya.

May 20.-The command marched for Morganza, where it arrived on the 21st.

May 24.-The Third and Fourth Brigades, and Battery F, First U. S. Artillery, were assigned to the Nineteenth Army Corps as cavalry forces Nineteenth Army Corps; Colonel Edmund J. Davis, First Texas Cavalry, was assigned to the command.

May 26.-General Arnold, with the First and Fifth Brigades, and Battery G, Fifth U. S. Artillery, marched via Waterloo and Plaquemine to Donaldsonville, La., arriving on the 30th. The command went into camp, while General Arnold and staff proceeded to New Orleans by water.

Numbers 81. Report of Brigadier General Albert L. Lee, U. S. Army, commanding Cavalry Division, of operations April 4-13.

HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY DIVISION,
Natchitoches, April 4, 1864.

GENERAL: A deserter from the Sixteenth Texas has just been sent me from the front. He speaks freely, and reports that on the evening of the 2nd, Walker's and Mouton's divisions were at Pleasant Hill. Mouton's division consisted of two brigades-Mouton's and Polignac's; Walker's division of four brigades-Scurry's, Randal's, Hawes'; and one other whose commander he cannot name; that these brigades consist of about four regiments each; that his brigade (Scurry's) has four regiments, Fitzhugh's, Allen's, Waterhouse's, and Flournoy's; each regiment has about 300 men for duty; that after I had driven their cavalry from Crump's Hill, on the evening of the 2nd instant, Mouton's brigade and Scurry's were advanced at mid-