ced
his battalion Vincent's men fell back on their main body and left
the wood to Holcomb, who immediately moved to the edge of the
clearing and held it, observing the enemy on the farther border.
This was Vincent with his regiment and the four guns of Corney;
and from this moment all that was happening on the lake shore passed
unseen by the Confederates.

Meanwhile the landing went on very slowly, for the transports could
not come nearer to the beach than a hundred yards, and, although
the foot-soldiers were able to jump overboard and scramble ashore,
and the horses could also take to the water, it was necessary to
make a bridge of flats for the guns and caissons of the artillery.
Thus it was four o'clock in the afternoon before the whole division
found itself assembled on the plantation of Duncan McWilliams on
the shore of the lake, with the Teche at the upper reach of Irish
Bend four miles to the southward, and Charenton in the hollow of
Indian Bend lying but two miles toward the southwest. There were
roads in either direction, but Irish Bend was the way to Franklin,
and to Franklin Grover was under orders to go.

About nine o'clock in the morning Dwight had borrowed from Birge
his two leading regiments, the 13th Connecticut and the 159th New
York, to support the 1st Louisiana. Grover also gave Dwight
Closson's battery and Barrett's troop of cavalry. Toward noon,
moving a detachment by his left, Dwight seized the bridge that
crosses the Teche in approaching Madame Porter's plantation from
the northward, just in time to extinguish the flames that Vincent's
men had lighted to destroy it. After seizing the bridge at Oak
Lawn, Barrett galloped down the left bank of the Teche and seized
the bridge a mile or two below, by which the same small plantation
is reached from the eastward; probably by the shell road that Grover
had been told to take, and at which he had tried to land. Barrett
was in time to save the bridge from Vincent, and to hold the
advantage thus gained Dwight soon sent Holcomb with the 1st Louisiana,
131st New York, 6th New York, 22d Maine, and Closson's battery.

Meanwhile, the division being entirely without wagons, save a few
that were loaded with the reserve ammunition, still another wait
took place while the men's haversacks were being filled with hard
bread and coffee. All these delays were now having their effect
upon Grover's own calculations. He now knew nothing of Banks's
movements or h