ght and surrendered.

The above statements are taken from the report of Major Ridley, made
after he was exchanged. The affair was unfortunate. Open to fire from
vessels on the river, Fort Butler was of no value to us, and the feeble
garrison would have remained under cover; but, like the Irishman at
Donnybrook, Green's rule was to strike an enemy whenever he saw him--a
most commendable rule in war, and covering a multitude of such small
errors as the attack on Fort Butler.

Meantime I was detained at Berwick's Bay, engaged in hurrying over and
forward artillery and arranging to transport the more valuable stores
into the interior. It was not, however, until near the end of the first
week in July that I succeeded in placing twelve guns on the river below
Donaldsonville. Fire was opened, one transport destroyed and several
turned back. Gunboats attempted to dislodge us, but were readily driven
away by the aid of Green's men, dismounted and protected by the levee.
For three days the river was closed to transports, and our mounted
scouts were pushed down to a point opposite Kenner, sixteen miles above
New Orleans. A few hours more, and the city would have been wild with
excitement; but in war time once lost can not be regained. The unwise
movement toward Vicksburg retarded operations at Berwick's and on the
river, and Port Hudson fell. During the night of the 10th of July
intelligence of its surrender on the previous day reached me, and some
hours later the fall of Vicksburg on the 4th was announced.

An iron-clad or two in Berwick's Bay, and the road at Plaquemine held by
troops, supported by vessels in the river, would close all egress from
the Lafourche, and the enemy could make arrangements to bag us at his
leisure; while Grant's army and Porter's fleet, now set free, might
overrun the Washita and Red River regions and destroy Walker's division,
separated from me by a distance of more than three hundred miles. The
outlook was not cheerful, but it was necessary to make the best of it,
and at all hazards save our plunder. Batteries and outposts were ordered
in to the Lafourche; Green concentrated his horse near Donaldsonville,
the infantry moved to Labadieville to support him, and Mouton went to
Berwick's, where he worked night and day in crossing stores to the west
side of the bay.

On the 13th of July Generals Weitzel, Grover, and Dwight, with six
thousand men, came from Port Hudson, disembarked at Donaldsonville, an