ng, but, persuaded that the enemy could not pass
the falls at Alexandria with his fleet, I determined to stick to him
with my little force of less than forty-five hundred of all arms. It was
impossible to believe that General Kirby Smith would continue to persist
in his inexplicable policy, and fail to come, ere long, to my
assistance.

On the 26th Bee's horse, from Beaseley's, joined Steele's at McNutt's
Hill; and together, under Wharton, they attacked the enemy in the valley
and drove him, with loss of killed and prisoners, to the immediate
vicinity of Alexandria.

When General Banks retreated so hastily from Grand Ecore, Admiral Porter
was laboring to get his fleet down to Alexandria. In a communication to
the Secretary of the Navy from his flag-ship below Grand Ecore, he says
("Report on the Conduct of the War," vol. ii., pages 234-5):

"I soon saw that the army would go to Alexandria again, and we would be
left above the bars in a helpless condition. The vessels are mostly at
Alexandria, above the falls, excepting this one and two others I kept to
protect the Eastport. The Red River is falling at the rate of two inches
a day. If General Banks should determine to evacuate this country, the
gunboats will be cut off from all communication with the Mississippi. It
cannot be possible that the country would be willing to have eight
iron-clads, three or four other gunboats, and many transports sacrificed
without an effort to save them. It would be the worst thing that has
happened this war."

The Eastport, the most formidable iron-clad of the Mississippi squadron,
grounded on a bar below Grand Ecore. Three tin-clad gunboats and two
transports remained near to assist in getting her off; and, to prevent
this, some mounted riflemen were sent, on the morning of the 26th, to
cooeperate with Liddell's raw levies on the north bank of the river.
These forced the enemy to destroy the Eastport, and drove away the
gunboats and transports. Our loss in the affair was two killed and four
wounded. Meantime, to intercept the gunboats and transports on their way
down, Colonel Caudle of Polignac's division, with two hundred riflemen
and Cornay's four-gun battery, had been posted at the junction of Cane
and Red Rivers, twenty miles below. At 6 o'clock P.M. of the 26th the
leading gunboat and one transport came down. Our fire speedily crippled
and silenced the gunboat, and a shot exploded the boiler of the
transport. Under cover of escap