a point on the Tensas opposite Vicksburg was
reached and the troops disembarked. Here Captain Harrison's mounted men,
previously mentioned, met us. For safety the steamers were sent down the
Tensas to its junction with the Washita, and up the last above Fort
Beauregard; and bridges were thrown over the Tensas and Macon to give
communication with the terminus of the Monroe Railway.

Walker rapidly advanced to the village of Richmond, midway between the
Tensas and Mississippi, some twelve miles from each, where he surprised
and captured a small Federal party. At Young's Point, ten miles above
Vicksburg, on the west bank of the river, the enemy had a fortified
camp, and a second one four miles above Young's, both occupied by negro
troops. Holding one brigade in reserve at the point of separation of the
roads, Walker sent a brigade to Young's and another to the camp above.
Both attacks were made at dawn, and, with the loss of some scores of
prisoners, the negroes were driven over the levee to the protection of
gunboats in the river.

Fifteen miles above Vicksburg the Yazoo River enters the Mississippi
from the east, and twenty-five miles farther up Steele's Bayou connects
the two rivers. Before reaching the Mississippi the Yazoo makes a bend
to the south, approaching the rear of Vicksburg. The right of Grant's
army rested on this bend, and here his supplies were landed, and his
transports were beyond the reach of annoyance from the west bank of the
Mississippi.

As foreseen, our movement resulted, and could result, in nothing. Walker
was directed to desist from further efforts on the river, and move to
Monroe, where steamers would be in readiness to return his command to
Alexandria, to which place I pushed on in advance. Subsequently, General
Kirby Smith reached Monroe direct from Shreveport, countermanded my
orders, and turned Walker back into the region east of the Tensas, where
this good soldier and his fine division were kept idle for some weeks,
until the fall of Vicksburg. The time wasted on these absurd movements
cost us the garrison of Port Hudson, nearly eight thousand men; but the
pressure on General Kirby Smith to _do something_ for Vicksburg was too
strong to be resisted.

At Alexandria I found three small regiments of Texan horse, just
arrived. Together they numbered six hundred and fifty, and restored the
loss suffered in action and in long marches by the forces on the Teche.
Colonel (afterward brigadier)