e miles in
front of Mansfield, and covered a cross-road leading to the Sabine. On
either side of the main Mansfield-Pleasant Hill road, at two miles'
distance, was a road parallel to it and connected by this Sabine
cross-road.

General Churchill, commanding the Missouri-Arkansas troops at Keachi,
was ordered to march for Mansfield at dawn of the 8th, and advised that
a battle was impending. My medical director was instructed to prepare
houses in the village for hospitals, and quartermasters were told to
collect supplies and park surplus wagons. An officer with a small guard
was selected to preserve order in the town, and especially among the
wagoners, always disposed to "stampede." Walker and Mouton were ordered
to move their divisions in the morning, ready for action, to the
position selected; and a staff officer was sent to Green, with
instructions to leave a small force in front of the enemy, and before
dawn withdraw to the appointed ground. These arrangements made, a
dispatch was sent to General Kirby Smith at Shreveport, informing him
that I had returned from the front, found the enemy advancing in force,
and would give battle on the following day, April 8, 1864, unless
positive orders to the contrary were sent to me. This was about 9 P.M.
of the 7th.

My confidence of success in the impending engagement was inspired by
accurate knowledge of the Federal movements, as well as the character of
their commander, General Banks, whose measure had been taken in the
Virginia campaigns of 1862 and since.

On the morning of the 7th of April Admiral Porter left Grand Ecore with
six gunboats and twenty transports, on which last were embarked some
twenty-five hundred troops. The progress of these vessels up the river
was closely watched by an officer of my staff, who was also in
communication with General Liddell on the north side. Banks began his
movement from Grand Ecore to Pleasant Hill on the 6th, with an estimated
force of twenty-five thousand. Though lateral roads existed, his column
marched by the main one, and in the following order: Five thousand
mounted men led the advance, followed by a large wagon train and much
artillery. Infantry succeeded, then more wagons and artillery, then
infantry again. In the afternoon of the 7th I knew that the front and
rear of his column were separated by a distance of twenty miles.

My troops reached the position in front of Sabine cross-road at an early
hour on the 8th, and were d