itself to be surprised at night, on the
open prairie near New Iberia, and lost a hundred men out of a hundred
and twenty-five. So much for want of discipline and over-confidence.
General Banks's report mentions this capture, but is silent about
Bourbeau.

The prisoners taken at the Bourbeau were marched to the Red River, where
supplies could be had. The second day after the action, _en route_ for
Alexandria in an ambulance, I turned out of the road on to the prairie
to pass the column, when I observed an officer, in the uniform of a
colonel, limping along with his leg bandaged. Surprised at this, I
stopped to inquire the reason, and was told that the colonel refused to
separate from his men. Descending from the ambulance, I approached him,
and, as gently as possible, remonstrated against the folly of walking on
a wounded leg. He replied that his wound was not very painful, and he
could keep up with the column. His regiment was from Wisconsin,
recruited among his neighbors and friends, and he was very unwilling to
leave it. I insisted on his riding with me, for a time at least, as we
would remain on the road his men were following. With much reluctance he
got into the ambulance, and we drove on. For some miles he was silent,
but, avoiding subjects connected with the war, I put him at ease, and
before Alexandria was reached we were conversing pleasantly. Impressed
by his bearing and demeanor, I asked him in what way I could serve him,
and learned that he desired to send a letter to his wife in Wisconsin,
who was in delicate health and expecting to be confined. She would hear
of the capture of his regiment, and be uncertain as to his fate. "You
shall go to the river to-night," I replied, "catch one of your steamers,
and take home the assurance of your safety. Remain on parole until you
can send me an officer of equal rank, and I will look to the comfort of
your men and have them exchanged at the earliest moment." His manly
heart was so affected by this as to incapacitate him from expressing his
thanks.

During the administration of Andrew Johnson a convention met in the city
of Philadelphia which, at the earnest instance of the President, I
attended. The gallant Wisconsin colonel was also there to lend his
assistance in healing the wounds of civil strife. My presence in the
city of _brotherly love_ furnished an occasion to a newspaper to
denounce me as "a rebel who, with hands dripping with loyal blood, had
the audacity