nboats. The Confederate right was also somewhat strengthened
by the embankment of the unfinished railroad to Opelousas. On the
other hand, from the nature of the ground, low and flat as it was,
the works were in part rather commanded than commanding; yet the
difference of level was inconsiderable, and for a force as small
as Taylor's, outnumbered as his was, any slight disadvantage in
this way was more than compensated by the shortness of the line.

Along the banks of the bayou were a few live oaks; on either flank
the swamp was densely wooded, mainly with cypress, cottonwood, and
willow, with an outlying and almost impenetrable canebrake, while
between the attacking columns and the Confederate position, on
either bank of the bayou, stretched a field where the young shoots
of the sugar-cane stood knee-high. This was crossed at right angles
with the bayou, by many of those wide and deep ditches by which
the planters of Louisiana are accustomed to drain their tilled
lowlands.

Such was the scene of the action now about to be fought, known to
the Union army as the battle of Bisland or Fort Bisland; to the
Confederates, as the battle of Bethel Place or Bayou Teche.

During the whole of the night of the 12th a dense fog prevailed,
but this lifting about eight o'clock on the morning of Monday, the
13th of April, disclosed a day as bright and beautiful as the scene
was fair. At an early hour the whole line advanced to within short
musketry range, in substantially the same order as on the previous
day. An attack by a detachment of Confederate cavalry upon the
skirmishers of the 4th Wisconsin, in advance of the sugar-house,
was easily thrown off, and a later demonstration by the Confederate
infantry upon Paine's position in the grove shared the same fortune.
Emory moved first the 8th New Hampshire, and afterwards the 133d
and 173d New York, to the support of the 4th Wisconsin. At the
same time Banks ordered Emory to send the other four regiments of
Gooding's brigade and the two remaining sections of the 1st Maine
battery to reinforce Bryan with the 175th New York on the left bank
of the Teche, in order to be prepared, not only to meet a flank
movement of the Confederates from that direction, but also to carry
to works on that side, should this be thought best. After these
dispositions had been completed the advance was steady and continuous,
yet not rapid, until toward noon the last of the Confederates
retired behind