troops sent by General Sherman under A. J. Smith, I am unable to give the date of its starting. The troops under General Smith, comprising two divisions of the Sixteenth and a detachment of the Seventeenth Army Corps, left Vicksburg on the 10th of March and reached the designated point on Red River one day earlier than that appointed by General Banks. The rebel forces at Ford De Russy, thinking to defeat him, left the fort on the 14th to give him battle in the open field; but, while occupying the enemy with skirmishing and demonstrations, Smith pushed forward to Fort De Russy, which had been left with a weak garrison, and captured it, with its garrison, about 350 men, eleven pieces of artillery, and many small-arms. Our loss was but slight. On the 15th, he pushed forward to Alexandria, which place he reached on the 18th. On the 21st, he had an engagement with the enemy at Henderson's Hill, in which he defeated him, capturing 210 prisoners and four pieces of artillery. On the 28th, he again attacked and defeated the enemy under the rebel General Taylor at Cane River.* By the 26th, General Banks had assembled his whole army at Alexandria and pushed forward to Grand Exore. On the morning of April 6, he moved from Grand Ecore. On the afternoon of the 7th, his advance engaged the enemy near Pleasant Hill and drove him from the field. On the same afternoon the enemy made a stand 8 miles beyond Pleasant Hill, but was again compelled to retreat. On the 8th, at Sabine Cross-Roads and Peach Hill, the enemy attacked and defeated his advance, capturing nineteen pieces of artillery and an immense amount of transportation and stores. During the night General Banks fell back to Pleasant Hill, where another battle was fought on the 9th, and the enemy repulsed with great loss. During the night General Banks continued his retrograde movement to Grand Ecore, and thence to Alexandria, which he reached on the 27th of April. Here a serous difficulty arose in getting Admiral Porter's fleet, which accompanied the expedition, over the rapids, the water having fallen so much since they passed up as to prevent their return. At the suggestion of Colonel (now Brigadier-General) Bailey, and under his superintendence, wing-dams were constructed, by which the channel was contracted so that the fleet passed down the rapids in safety.

The army evacuated Alexandria on the 14th of may, after considerable skirmishing with the enemy's advance, and reached Morganza and Point Coupee near the end of the month. The disastrous termination of this expedition, and the lateness of the season, rendered impracticable the carrying out of my plans of a movement in force sufficient to insure the capture of Mobile.

On the 23rd of March Major-General Steele left Little rock with the Seventh Army Corps to co-operate with General Banks' expedition on Red River, and reached Arkadelphia on the 28th. On the 16th of April, after driving the enemy before him, he was joined near Elkin's Ferry, in Ouachita County, by General Thayer, who had marched from Fort Smith. After several severe skirmishes, in which the enemy was defeated, General Steele reached Camden, which he occupied about the middle of April. On learning the defeat and consequent retreat of General Banks on Red River and the loss of one of his own trains at Marks' Mills, in Dallas Country, General Steele determined to fall back to the Arkansas River. He left Camden on the 26th of April and reached Little Rock on the 2nd

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*A mistake. A. J. Smith's command reached Cotile Landing March 28.

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