Bisland, swept through the most productive portions of Louisiana and caused the loss of our works controlling the navigation of the Red River and Atachafalaya. This was subordinate to the investment of Port Hudson. I made the best disposition I could of my troops to aid in the relief of Vicksburg and Port Hudson. General Taylor, with Walker's division drawn from Arkansas, moved secretly up the Tensas in transports, and landing a few miles from where Grant crossed the Mississippi River, attempted a coup de main upon his communications. The enterprise succeeded, but did not produce the important results anticipated, Grant having previously acquired a base of supplies upon the Yazoo River. General Taylor now move into the La Fourche country, where he operated successfully in interrupting the navigation of the Mississippi River between Port Hudson and New Orleans. His position became perilous after the fall of Port Hudson,and he recrossed Berwick Bay. General Holmes reported that it was practicable for him to take Helena, and permission was given him to attempt it. The position was unsuccessfully assailed on July 4. The enemy subsequently advanced, General Price abandoned Little Rock, and our forces fell back to Camden.

In the fall of 1863 the enemy made two attempts upon Texas. In the first, he landed the the mouth o the Sabine, where, by the gallantry of a single company occupying a small fort, he was beaten, two of his gun-boats captured, and his design frustrated. He then concentrated a column at Berwick Bay int he season of low water, intending to proceed along he coast, drawing his supplies from its numerous inlets. I met this by placing Magruder's small force at the Sabine, holding Taylor on his flank. The letter, by avoiding a general engagement, while he harassed and menaced his communications, caused him to retire, when by a brilliant rear-guard action General Green punished him severely. Banks then commenced his series of grand maneuvers upon the whole length of the coast of Texas. General Green's division was transferred to Galveston and the mouth of the Braxos to meet a powerful force landed on Matagorda Peninsula.

Throughout the winter General Magruder was occupied in foiling the designs of the enemy, who, numerically, was greatly his superior. This brings me to the point of time when the spring campaign opened, and I beg you to remark the position of the opposing forces. My lines extended from the Indiana Territory, through Arkansas, to the Mississippi and down to the mouth of the Red River, thence by the Atchafalaya to Berwick Bay, and from thence by the coast to the Colorado. A small body of troops was engaged in observing the enemy at Brownsville. My forces were massed in three principal bodies, to wit, under Magruder, opposite Banks, on Matagorda Peninsula; under Price, confronting Steele; under Taylor, holding the lower Red River. The immense transportation of the enemy admitted of his taking the initiative with his entire force at any moment against any portion of my extended lines, while my limited transportation and the wide distances which separated my commands made it impossible to effect rapid concentration or assume the offensive. My only alternative was to wait the development of the enemy's plans, to retire before him until I effected my concentrations, and to endeavor to maneuver to throw the principal mass, if you my whole force, against open of his columns.

As I wrote you in the fall of 1863, I was satisfied that the line of Red River would be the line of his principal attack, because, as I then said, when the water rose so as to admit his powerful naval