gallantry on the field as well as for patient labor in office work, these officers are almost deprived of the hope of promotion, as they have already attained the grade allowed by the custom of the service to officers of the adjutant and inspector general's departments, serving on the taft of a major-general. It would be very gratifying to me could these gallant officers receive the preferment they have so justly earned.

To understand the movements of the three days preceding the battle of Pleasant Hill a short description of the country is necessary. Leaving the Red River on the west bank a few miles below Shreveport, the Bayou Pierre, after a long course, in which it frequently expands into wide lakes, returns to the Red River 3 miles above Grand Ecore, divides the hills of Caddo, De Soto, and Natchitoches from the alluvion of Red River. Three main roads lead from the interior to landings on Red River and cross Bayou Pierre by ferries, the stream being 300 feet wide at the narrowest ferry and never fordable. These main roads, commencing at the south, are the road from Pleasant Hill to Blair's Landing, crossing Bayou Pierre at Jordan's Ferry, 4 miles from the latter place; the road from Mansfield to Garand Bayou Landing, 18 miles, crossing Bayou Pierre at a wide ferry, and the road to Red Bluff Landing, which leaves the Mansfield and Shreveport road about midway between the two places. I had stationed on the west bank of the Red River a most energetic and reliable officer, Captain James McCloskey, assistant quartermaster and chief of forage on my staff, with instructions to keep me advised of the progress of the enemy's fleet, the condition of the river, and facilitate my communications with Brigadier-General Liddell, operating, as previously stated, on the opposite side of the river whit his cavalry brigade and a battery of four guns. Dispatches from General Liddell and Captain McCloskey informed me that the fleet of about thirty vessels, of which only five were loaded with troops-the others being gunboats and transports loaded with stores-passed Grand Bayou Landing on the morning of the 9th, pushing slowly and steadily up the river, as at the low stage of the water every mile which they gained in ascending served to insure their destruction. I felt anxious to cut off their communication with Banks, being certain that the intelligence of his defeat on the 8th and 9th would send the fleet down to Grand Encore. Accordingly, at daylight on the morning of the 11th, Bagby, with his brigade of cavalry, which had returned to Mansfield from the battle-field of Pleasant Hill, to forage, was ordered to proceed with his brigade and Barnes' battery to Grand Bayou. Before reaching the ferry over Bayou Pierre he ascertained that the enemy had succeeded, on the afternoon of the 10th, in passing 40 cavalry up the river to communicate with the fleet, which had immediately turned back from Boggy Bayou, the highest point reached by it. Bagby immediately proceeded to throw his command across the ferry to the bank of the river. The time lost in crossing Bayou Pierre without a pontoon brought him too late on the river, the fleet having passed Grand Bayou Landing on their way down at 10 a. m. on the 11th. He pushed on down the river road toward Blair's Landing, which he reached on the evening of the 12th, after the close of Green's operations of that day. The want of a pontoon alone prevented him from inflicting heavy damage upon the enemy.

During this time (the 10th and 11th) the infantry had been drawn back to the neighborhood of Mansfield, for reasons which will